First recorded in 1795–1805; short for pianoforte
1675–85; < Italian: soft, low (of sounds), plain, flat < Latin plānus plain 1
A piano is a large musical instrument that you play by pressing black and white keys on a keyboard. Most people play a piano with their fingers, but Jerry Lee Lewis played with his fingers, feet, elbows, and, ahem, backside. A piano makes a sound when each key moves a small hammer that strikes a metal string. The inside of a piano looks kind of like a harp. Pianos are vital in many kinds of music, from classical to pop, and in the case of Lewis, boogie-woogie. Piano comes from the original Italian name for the instrument: piano e forte, "soft and loud." Piano is also the musical notation that tells the player that something should be played quietly.
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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Indeed, her 1964 signature hit "Downtown", which sold millions and earned her a Grammy award, had no lyrics when she first heard composer Tony Hatch playing it on the piano.
From Barron's ● Jul. 17, 2026
Dean’s set was full of classic stuff — pastel-hued horns, bossa nova piano, winking choreo from her full-suited backing band.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2026
First she’s declarative, with pure tone and just Sullivan Fortner’s piano for accompaniment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 11, 2026
Countless karaoke nights and rainy drives have been scored to Tyler’s inimitable song, so much so that the opening piano notes of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” might precede Tyler’s substantial legacy.
From Salon ● Jul. 9, 2026
Irene, the piano teacher Mrs. Kuen had recommended, turned out to be twenty-two—hardly a girl—and white.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar – One night, about 100 women from the Women in Auto Care conference I was attending descended on this place with zero warning — and the staff didn’t miss a beat.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2026
Odeleye won Wandsworth Musician of the Year in 2022, and later auditioned for The Piano at Liverpool Street Station.
From BBC ● Mar. 7, 2026
Equally peculiar was a performance of Schumann’s Piano Concerto that served as transition from “Humboldt” to “Egmont.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2026
In a conversation with several journalists, including AFP, Huppert drew a parallel with Jelinek's work for the "The Blood Countess" and her novel "The Piano Teacher".
From Barron's ● Feb. 18, 2026
Piano lessons were a strain, knowing he was waiting for me outside First Methodist.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
The mixture of two pianos and harmonium creates a timbre that somehow manages to seem both eerie and comfortable, and the silences that surround the sounds are as important as the sounds themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
And it ends with Sabotage, where discordant pianos and jump-scare strings soundtrack her self-destruction.
From BBC ● May 2, 2026
I think people will be very bored with screen time in 20 years, so we will have moved back to fishing, reading books, gardening, playing real guitars and pianos, taking walks, and enjoying family cookouts.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
A cousin to self-playing player pianos, photoplayers automatically play music read out of perforated piano rolls.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2025
Or what it was like for the little girl who couldn’t perform at the school talent show because her parents received the Death-Cast alert while she was dreaming of pianos.
From "They Both Die at the End" by Adam Silvera
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.
