a voice or voice part intermediate in compass between soprano and contralto.
a person having such a voice.
Sometimes shortened to: mezzo. a female voice intermediate between a soprano and contralto and having a range from the A below middle C to the F an eleventh above it
a singer with such a voice
Borrowed into English from Italian around 1745–55
In classical music, a mezzo-soprano is the second-highest singing voice. While they don't sing the very highest notes, mezzo-sopranos reach higher registers than contraltos. In Italian, mezzo means "middle," and soprano, "the treble in music," is from a root meaning "above." Mezzo-sopranos are right in the middle, between soprano and contralto voices. Classical music lovers describe mezzo-sopranos as sounding darker and richer than the brighter, higher tone of a soprano. If you want be an opera or choral singer but you can't quite reach those high notes, you may be a mezzo-soprano!
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For celebrated US mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato, taking on the piece at the current time was necessary.
From Barron's • Apr. 5, 2026
The four soloists — soprano Pretty Yende, mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, tenor SeokJong Baek and bass Nicholas Brownlee — were needfully robust and powerful.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2026
Mr. Blier, who co-founded the New York Festival of Song in 1988, recounts his proudest accomplishments—among them working with the mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli, who “turned every song into an intimate duet.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D'Angelo, whose voice has been called "a thing of wonder", makes her Proms debut with Norwegian soprano Mari Eriksmoen and the Hallé orchestra.
From BBC • Apr. 23, 2025
Another thought that Auguste Comte was a writer of songs and asked if any one knew one of them which would suit a mezzo-soprano voice.
From Mysterious Psychic Forces An Account of the Author's Investigations in Psychical Research, Together with Those of Other European Savants by Flammarion, Camille
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.
