maestro
Americannoun
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maestros,
plural
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maestri
plural
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an eminent composer, teacher, or conductor of music.
Toscanini and other great maestros.
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(initial capital letter) a title of respect used in addressing or referring to such a person.
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a master of any art.
the maestros of poetry.
noun
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a distinguished music teacher, conductor, or musician
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any man regarded as the master of an art: often used as a term of address
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of maestro
1790–1800; < Italian: master
Explanation
A maestro is an artistic master: someone who is skilled enough to be considered an artistic genius. Taking one music class or art class can teach you a lot, but it won't make you a maestro. Maestro (which comes from Italian) is reserved for people with an enormous amount of skill and talent. This word can apply to any type of artist — and sometimes, to people with impressive skills in other areas — but it's most commonly applied to musicians. Master composers, pianists, cellists, guitarists, and conductors are often called maestros.
Vocabulary lists containing maestro
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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:
That mindset has made him a horror maestro for over three decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 30, 2026
Statistics from the last Premier League season do not feature Manchester City maestro Rodri as he continued his return from a anterior cruciate ligament injury.
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
Brunson became an expert dribbler with both hands, a maestro of footwork and fundamentals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026
Mr. Reynor, who recently had a thankless starring role in “Lee Cronin’s The Mummy,” is back on track as this arrogant but talented backstage maestro.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
It was easy not to be serious about the old fellow, for he was that peculiar creation which ignorant people laugh at—a genuine maestro.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Just as much, those maestri would defer to Mr. Drucker’s interpretations of clarinet solos.
From New York Times ● Dec. 20, 2022
As an example let us take the case of the radio maestri.
From Time Magazine Archive
It was established in one of the halls of the Lateran, and even the Carlovingian kings obtained from it skilful maestri and organists.
From Pagan and Christian Rome by Rodolfo Amedeo Lanciani
For five years now I've given up what I'd like to do, and I've tried, under the best maestri I could find, to make something out of my voice, so to speak.
From The Bent Twig by Dorothy Canfield Fisher
And this piece of ecclesiastical furniture therefore presented a great field for the taste and ingenuity of the old maestri in wood-carving to exhibit their skill both in design and in execution.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 102, June, 1876 by Various
Donning video headsets and armed with nothing more than a joystick and the Olympics’ fastest fingers, these maestros have the exact same objective as the athlete they’re filming: to be the best in the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 13, 2026
He delighted audiences at prestigious venues like Carnegie Hall and collaborated with jazz legends, Western classical orchestras, and Carnatic music maestros.
From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2024
Speaking of midfield maestros, the mercurial Zidane has been out of management since leaving Barcelona's Clasico rivals Real Madrid in 2021.
From BBC ● Oct. 28, 2024
What might a young music director mean to an orchestra and to a city when an amazing crop of international and, for the first time, diverse young maestros and maestras is upon us?
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 12, 2024
In the case of the classical musicians’ auditions, the maestros were incapable of making a fair judgment about how well someone was playing if they could see them.
From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell
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.
