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serenata

[ser-uh-nah-tuh]
noun, plural ser·e·na·tas, ser·e·na·te [ser-uh-nah-tey] /ˌsɛr əˈnɑ teɪ/. Music.
  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.

Origin of serenata

1715–25; < Italian serenata evening song, equivalent to seren(o) serene + -ata noun suffix, associated with sera evening; cf. soiree
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for serenata

Historical Examples of serenata

  • It was not a revision of the serenata which he wrote at Naples, but an entirely new work.

    Handel

    Edward J. Dent

  • And then I've promised to compose you a serenata, with seventy-five verses.

    Columba

    Prosper Merimee

  • The doorway was empty; the evening serenata of a robin filled the hush.

    The Game and the Candle

    Eleanor M. Ingram

  • I saw him first in a gondola the night of the serenata—and then at the Armenian convent.

  • An energetic clapping of hands, from other windows as well as those of Marjories room, greeted the close of the Serenata.

British Dictionary definitions for serenata

serenata

noun
  1. an 18th-century cantata, often dramatic in form
  2. another word for serenade

Word Origin for serenata

C18: from Italian; see 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