glissando

American  

[gli-sahn-doh] / glɪˈsɑn doʊ /

adjective

1. performed with a gliding effect by sliding one or more fingers rapidly over the keys of a piano or strings of a harp.

---

noun

glissandi plural

1. a glissando passage.

2. (in string playing) a slide.

glissando British  

/ ɡlɪˈsændəʊ /

noun

1. a rapidly executed series of notes on the harp or piano, each note of which is discretely audible

2. a portamento, esp as executed on the violin, viola, etc

---

Etymology

Origin of glissando

1870–75; < French gliss ( er ) to slide + Italian -ando gerund ending

Compare meaning

How does glissando compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• portamento vs. glissando

Example Sentences

The song dissolves with another harp glissando that’s seamlessly replaced by the chunky, churning beat of “Heaven Must Be Missing an Angel.”

From The Wall Street Journal • May 25, 2026

Indian musicians began adapting their own classical music for steel guitar, and in Africa, the quest to replicate the glissando effect begat a local technique dubbed “Hauyani” after the word “Hawaiian.”

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2024

She likened the sound of this brief passage to a quick, abbreviated glissando on a piano.

From Scientific American • Jan. 5, 2023

And the British folk scene is particularly specific and it doesn’t have any of the glissando and the kind of flattened thirds, kind of blue notes which I have spent my life bathing in.

From Washington Post • Jun. 7, 2022

From behind the walls, a tremendous glissando trumps forth from Sammy’s piano, and I turn to number forty-five’s mom and say, “Wow, what a dramatic audition song. What’s he singing?”

From "Better Nate Than Ever" by Tim Federle