ostinato
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ostinato
1875–80; < Italian: literally, obstinate < Latin obstinātus obstinate
Vocabulary lists containing ostinato
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:
Laid across this ostinato are various storylines involving recruits working out the issues that have brought them to this Parris Island of Misfit Boys.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2025
Abdelmahmoud brings up the ostinato in music — the repeated motif that acts like “guard rails for your emotional experience during every measure of the song.”
From New York Times ● Jul. 6, 2022
A billion people might be able to instantly hum Williams’ two-note ostinato from “Jaws” or “The Imperial March” from “Star Wars.”
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 23, 2022
The Pasadena, California-based court said the eight-note pattern, known as an ostinato, consisted "entirely of commonplace musical elements" that lacked the "quantum of originality" needed for copyright protection.
From Reuters ● Mar. 10, 2022
If the children are not ready to sing the song with a sung vocal ostinato, begin by chanting the song as a speech piece and adding one or more speech ostinato patterns.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
Rima Fand’s pleasant, folk-tinged score is illustrative rather than striking; the accompanying ensemble of mandolin, string quartet and bass, led from the piano by Mila Henry, plays a lot of ostinatos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
Giddens wrote her libretto for “Omar” and began sending Abels a slow deluge of recordings of lines — vocal lines, banjo ostinatos, keyboard melodies.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2022
Hushed drones and ostinatos probably aren’t her route out of that cul-de-sac.
From Slate ● Jul. 24, 2020
As he’s gotten older, the pianist’s left hand has begun to overtake his famous right-hand ostinatos, and it gave the impression of thunder.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 20, 2018
The vocal lines lift the words almost reverentially, accompanied by sparse chords and gentle ostinatos.
From New York Times ● Dec. 15, 2016
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.
