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.

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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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• glissandi
  plural

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

See Examples For:

glissando glissandi

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

At the start are sputtering bows and glissando slides over a droning foundation that is occasionally built out into briefly sustained, then shifting chords.

From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2023

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

From Scientific American ● Jan. 5, 2023

For hours afterward, that skulking clarinet glissando and those thunder bolts of piano rolls rumbled through me.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2021

For example, a wood block corresponds to a hop, a xylophone glissando is a leap, a shaker means to shake.

From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin

That’s reflected, Nally said, in the music, which has an “out-of-focusness” that comes from Gordon’s taste for glissandi and love of canons.

From New York Times ● Nov. 15, 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

The piece, he writes, is a "wash of sound" featuring "impressionistic string arpeggios, along with other rapid figures, moody thick chords and glissandi."

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 21, 2018

But despite the wind and string players’ heroics, especially in cascading glissandi, the net result was an aural onslaught 15 minutes too long — a reflection of the composition, not the musicians.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 19, 2017

The piano in it is put to various uses, with a fill of glissandi matching the diabolic mood.

From Franz Liszt by Huneker, James