sextet

or sex·tette

[seks-tet]

See more synonyms for sextet on Thesaurus.com

noun

any group or set of six.
Also sestet. Music.
1. a company of six singers or players.
2. a musical composition for six voices or instruments.

Origin of sextet

1835–45; half-Latinized variant of sestet; see sex-

Can be confusedsextant sextet sexton

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for sextet

chorus, trio, cast, orchestra, band, troupe, assemblage, quintet, sextet, choir, quartet, semester, hexad, hexagram, hexagon, sextuplet, gathering, set, group, composite

Examples from the Web for sextet

Historical Examples of sextet

The greatest ensemble number in Italian opera, the sextet, has begun.
The Complete Opera Book
Gustav Kobb
They are an introduction, a chorus, and a septet, not a sextet as he said.
Richard Wagner His Life and His Dramas
W. J. Henderson
As a sextet, there's no use denying that we are rather lovely to look at.
The Seven Darlings
Gouverneur Morris
I hope you will be pleased to hear I have composed a sextet for strings.
The Life & Letters of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky
Modeste Tchaikovsky
Sextet for two clarionets, two flutes, and two bassoons; performed 1804-5.
Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.)
Elliott Graeme

British Dictionary definitions for sextet

sextet

sextette

noun

music a group of six singers or instrumentalists or a piece of music composed for such a group
a group of six people or things

Word Origin for sextet

C19: variant of sestet, with Latinization of ses-

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 sextet

1841, altered (by influence of German Sextett) from sestet.