glissando
Americanadjective
noun
-
glissandi
plural
-
a glissando passage.
-
(in string playing) a slide.
noun
-
a rapidly executed series of notes on the harp or piano, each note of which is discretely audible
-
a portamento, esp as executed on the violin, viola, etc
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of glissando
1870–75; < French gliss ( er ) to slide + Italian -ando gerund ending
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Vocabulary lists containing glissando
Music - Middle School
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Music - High School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The midtempo “Ridin’ High” starts with a descending harp glissando that pours into a synthesizer seasoned by a vibraslap’s rattlesnake hiss.
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
But I might like what comes next even more: a glissando that swings up past the “right” note and sounds, magically, like the piano in its exuberance is singing just a little sharp.
From New York Times ● Apr. 5, 2023
She likened the sound of this brief passage to a quick, abbreviated glissando on a piano.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 5, 2023
A running stream could be a glissando on a xylophone; thunder can be played with drums; footsteps with a woodblock, etc.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Those big glissandi required white gloves to protect the pianist’s hands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2022
The new concerto is a work of considerable beauty, with delicate, feathery glissandi in the two harps, a bewitching double cadenza, and intricate rhythmic patterns.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 19, 2021
On the harp, Sator spoke in euphoric glissandi and thoughtful pinpricks, while Pirog’s wobbling guitar tone replied in playful smears.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 31, 2021
One point of comparison might be “Music for Airports” by Brian Eno, another schematic creation, but there’s too much forward motion to peg this as ambient music, starting with Zeena Parkins’s itchy harp glissandi.
From New York Times ● Oct. 24, 2014
The Janko keyboard, a sort of ivory toboggan-slide, permitted the performance of incredible difficulties; glissandi in chromatic tenths!
From Franz Liszt by James Huneker
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
