pizzicato

[ pit-si-kah-toh; Italian peet-tsee-kah-taw ]

/ ˌpɪt sɪˈkɑ toʊ; Italian ˌpit tsiˈkɑ tɔ /

Music.

adjective

played by plucking the strings with the finger instead of using the bow, as on a violin.

noun, plural piz·zi·ca·ti [pit-si-kah-tee; Italian peet-tsee-kah-tee] /ˌpɪt sɪˈkɑ ti; Italian ˌpit tsiˈkɑ ti/.

a note or passage so played.

Nearby words

Origin of pizzicato

1835–45; < Italian, past participle of pizzicare to pluck, pick, twang (a stringed instrument)

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for pizzicato

Con sordino and pizzicato passages occur as often for the cello as for the violin.
Music Notation and Terminology|Karl W. Gehrkens
Above the distant roll of the artillery, one gun stood out like a pizzicato note on a giant bass violin.
The Blower of Bubbles|Arthur Beverley Baxter
The pizzicato tuning of a violin is heard through the window.
Stars of the Opera|Mabel Wagnalls
He invented the tremolo and the pizzicato, and originated the vocal duet.
For Every Music Lover|Aubertine Woodward Moore

It was the music of piano and the pizzicato plucking of strings—there was no pompous organ note, no ore rotundo any more.
The Drunkard|Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull

British Dictionary definitions for pizzicato

pizzicato

/ (ˌpɪtsɪˈkɑːtəʊ) music /

adjective, adverb

(in music for the violin family) to be plucked with the finger

noun

the style or technique of playing a normally bowed stringed instrument in this manner

Word Origin for pizzicato

C19: from Italian: pinched, from pizzicare to twist, twang

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for pizzicato

pizzicato

1845, from Italian pizzicato "plucked," past participle of pizzicare "to pluck (strings), pinch," from pizzare "to prick, to sting," from Old Italian pizzo "point, edge," from Vulgar Latin *pits-, probably of imitative origin. As an adjective from 1880.