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sextet

or sex·tette

[seks-tet]
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noun
  1. any group or set of six.
  2. Also sestet. Music.
    1. a company of six singers or players.
    2. a musical composition for six voices or instruments.
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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

Examples from the Web for sextet

Historical Examples

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Sextet for two clarionets, two flutes, and two bassoons; performed 1804-5.

British Dictionary definitions for sextet

sextet

sextette

noun
  1. music a group of six singers or instrumentalists or a piece of music composed for such a group
  2. a group of six people or things
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Word Origin

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

n.

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

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper