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

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

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

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

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

Coates' Fourth Symphony, for instance, refashions Dido's Lament from Purcell's "Dido and Aeneas" into uncanny glissandi and strange harmonies in which lamentation becomes a ritual of memory as an act of distortion.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2014

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

From Franz Liszt by Huneker, James