staccato
Americanadjective
-
shortened and detached when played or sung.
staccato notes.
-
characterized by performance in which the notes are abruptly disconnected.
a staccato style of playing.
-
composed of or characterized by abruptly disconnected elements; disjointed.
rapid-fire, staccato speech.
adverb
noun
-
performance in a staccato manner.
-
a staccato passage.
adjective
-
music (of notes) short, clipped, and separate
-
characterized by short abrupt sounds, as in speech
a staccato command
adverb
Discover More
The term staccato has been applied generally to things that occur in rapid bursts, such as gunfire.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of staccato
1715–25; < Italian: disconnected, past participle of staccare (derivative of stacca pole < Gothic, but taken as a variant of distaccare to detach )
Explanation
Staccato is a musical term for notes that are played quickly and sharply. It can also refer to anything characterized by similar beats, such as the staccato clacking of a woman's high heels on a tile floor. There is nothing quite so pleasant as lying in bed on a Saturday morning listening to the staccato tapping of rain on the roof, knowing that everything you had planned will now be canceled. Other staccato sounds are not so pleasant — like your neighbor learning to play the drums or a jack hammer blaring right outside your window.
Vocabulary lists containing staccato
Number the Stars
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The Kite Runner
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Music - Introductory
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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.
In April 2022, the Transportation Security Administration reported they had found a loaded gun, which police later confirmed was Cawthorn's 9 mm Staccato C2, in his luggage as he passed through a security checkpoint.
From Salon • May 5, 2023
This fall the scarce 1935 novel has been reissued by Stark House Press in its Staccato Crime imprint with a biographical introduction by David Rachels.
From Washington Post • Dec. 8, 2022
When Cawthorn came through checkpoint D at Charlotte Douglas International Airport with the gun, a 9 mm Staccato C2, around 9 a.m.,
From Seattle Times • Apr. 26, 2022
In the early 1990s it was packaged with CorelDraw, a vector graphics editor, but under a different name: Staccato 555.
From New York Times • Nov. 21, 2018
Staccato notes are short, with plenty of space between them.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
