operetta

American  

[op-uh-ret-uh] / ˌɒp əˈrɛt ə /

noun

1. a short opera, usually of a light and amusing character.

---

operetta British  

/ ˌɒpəˈrɛtə /

noun

1. a type of comic or light-hearted opera

---

operetta Cultural  

1. Comic or lighthearted operas of the kind written by Gilbert and Sullivan. Operettas generally have a substantial amount of spoken (not sung) dialogue.

---

Other Word Forms

• operettist noun

Etymology

Origin of operetta

1760–70; < Italian, diminutive of opera opera ¹

Example Sentences

These mid-century dream teams revolutionized American theater by popularizing the integrated musical, a form which leveraged classic operetta elements like song and dance as narrative tools.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 27, 2026

But Lubitsch envisioned, as no one else did, what might come of marrying sound films with a modified form of operetta.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 18, 2026

The singer sported a Union Jack jester's hat for the traditional performance of Rule, Britannia! and blew kisses to the audience while singing Ruperto Chapí's tongue-twisting comic operetta Las Hijas Del Zebedeo.

From BBC • Sep. 14, 2024

This winter, young actors and dancers from the Dnipro Academic Opera and Ballet Theater performed “Sorochinsky Fair,” an operetta based on a story by the Ukrainian writer Nikolai Gogol.

From New York Times • May 5, 2023

They were all outfitted with showy uniforms that looked like costumes from an operetta, but he was unable to make them wear shoes, because they were accustomed to going barefoot and could not adjust.

From "The House of the Spirits: A Novel" by Isabel Allende