diminuendo

American  

[dih-min-yoo-en-doh] / dɪˌmɪn juˈɛn doʊ /

adjective

1. gradually reducing in force or loudness; decrescendo (opposed to crescendo).

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noun

• diminuendoes
  plural

1. a gradual reduction of force or loudness.

2. a diminuendo passage. >

diminuendo British  

/ dɪˌmɪnjʊˈɛndəʊ /

noun

1. 1.  dim.  a gradual decrease in loudness or the musical direction indicating this

   2. a musical passage affected by a diminuendo

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adjective

1. gradually decreasing in loudness

2. with a diminuendo

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• diminuendoes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of diminuendo

1765–75; < Italian, present participle of diminuire; see diminish

Explanation

In music, diminuendo means gradually growing more quiet. When the sheet music calls for a diminuendo, that's definitely not the time to blow your trumpet as hard as you can. As they play, musicians don't simply follow the notes; musical notation includes a lot of additional information, including how fast to play, whether to be loud or quiet, and when to increase or decrease the volume. Diminuendo, which comes from the Latin root deminuere, or "diminish," instructs a pianist or cellist to quiet their playing, transitioning to a more gentle sound.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

diminuendo diminuendoes

Saints meanwhile are coming off the back of their no-show in the FA Cup semi, and, with relegation a fate unlikely to befall them, face an elongated diminuendo to their season.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 21, 2021

It wasn’t an anticlimax — more like a diminuendo.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2017

Seems to me that that last exchange between Paige and Elizabeth wasn't just a random diminuendo.

From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2017

In Mitchell’s case, the diminuendo was especially long, and his continued expectations for himself much higher.

From The New Yorker ● Apr. 20, 2015

All who sat under the doctor were conscious of a difference, at first vague, in his eloquent discourses, of a diminuendo in the full fervour of his delivery and manner.

From Bye-Ways by Hichens, Robert Smythe

Rifle-fire is as inconstant in volume as piano music; there is something of human effort to be heard in the "tap ... tap ... tap ... tap-tap-trrrrapp" of its crescendos and diminuendoes.

From "Contemptible", by "Casualty" by

He makes them dance for his pleasure, and you hear their breath come and go, in the swell and subsiding of those marvellous crescendoes and diminuendoes which set the strings pulsating like a sea.

From Plays, Acting and Music A Book Of Theory by Symons, Arthur

Not only so, but the accompanying orchestra faithfully upheld and completed the symphony which rose and fell with crescendos and diminuendoes more glorious as the chorus pealed louder and nearer.

From The Trail of a Sourdough Life in Alaska by Sullivan, May Kellogg

His delivery, with its sentimental diminuendoes and coquettish staccatoes, was reminiscent of the music-hall style, on which it was doubtless modelled.

From The Undying Past by Sudermann, Hermann

And instant by instant the flood of varicolored flame that poured into its petalings down from the sapphire ovoids waxed and waned in crescendoes and diminuendoes of relucent harmonies—ecstatic, awesome.

From The Metal Monster by Merritt, Abraham