legato

[ luh-gah-toh; Italian le-gah-taw ]

/ ləˈgɑ toʊ; Italian lɛˈgɑ tɔ /

adjective, adverb Music.

smooth and connected; without breaks between the successive tones.

Nearby words

legaspi, legate, legatee, legatine, legation, legato, legator, legco, legend, legendary, legendist

Compare staccato.

Origin of legato

1805–15; < Italian, past participle of legare < Latin ligāre to bind

Related forms

non·le·ga·to, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for legato

La prego credere che io sono ora, e per tutta la mia vita sarò, a Lei legato di affezione, divozione e rispetto.
Diversions in Sicily|H. Festing Jones
Some allow pupils to practise only staccato, and others only legato, aiming thereby at nobody knows what.
Piano and Song|Friedrich Wieck
Legato means "bound together," for which we substitute the word "connected."
Piano Playing|Josef Hofmann
After one has been through a mass of such material, the matter of legato singing becomes more or less automatic.
Great Singers on the Art of Singing|James Francis Cooke

For example, the legato and symbols which indicate that difference ( and ) have therefore the greatest value.
Montessori Elementary Materials|Maria Montessori

British Dictionary definitions for legato

legato

/ (lɪˈɡɑːtəʊ) music /

adjective, adverb

to be performed smoothly and connectedly

noun plural -tos

a style of playing in which no perceptible gaps are left between notes
(as modifier)a legato passage

Word Origin for legato

C19: from Italian, literally: bound

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012