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serenata

American  
[ser-uh-nah-tuh] / ˌsɛr əˈnɑ tə /

noun

Music.
serenatas, plural serenate plural
  1. a form of secular cantata, often of a dramatic or imaginative character.

  2. an instrumental composition in several movements, intermediate between the suite and the symphony.


serenata British  
/ ˌsɛrɪˈnɑːtə /

noun

  1. an 18th-century cantata, often dramatic in form

  2. another word for serenade

"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

Etymology

Origin of serenata

1715–25; < Italian serenata evening song, equivalent to seren ( o ) serene + -ata noun suffix, associated with sera evening; cf. soiree

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.

My mother trailed behind me with serenata, a cold codfish salad, and a crock of steaming hot arroz con gandules.

From Washington Post • Nov. 18, 2021

Last January, Tines joined Costanzo and soprano Lauren Snouffer in a gender-fluid production of Handel’s rarely staged serenata, “Aci, Galatea e Polifemo” directed by Christopher Alden.

From Washington Post • Aug. 30, 2021

Written for a wedding in 1708, this serenata — a form somewhere between a sonata and an opera — is about two servants who fall prey to their master, the malevolent Polifemo.

From New York Times • Jul. 10, 2017

A 300-year-old serenata, it languished forgotten until it was recently rediscovered by scholars.

From New York Times • May 5, 2016

Upon Sunday morning—the fashionable time of serenata or promenade concert—the wealth and beauty of the capital foregather in carriages and upon foot and listen to the strains of the band.

From Mexico Its Ancient and Modern Civilisation, History, Political Conditions, Topography, Natural Resources, Industries and General Development by Hume, Martin

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