symphony orchestra
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of symphony orchestra
First recorded in 1880–85
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.
As creative director, former music director Esa-Pekka Salonen will spend six weeks a season helping envision what a 21st century symphony orchestra might look like.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 7, 2026
Phil announcing it was all in with its transformative former music director and had created a new position of creative director in which he would rethink the role of the symphony orchestra in society.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 10, 2025
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour put a symphony orchestra on stage alongside the actors in a savage satire which dramatised the plight of Soviet dissidents locked away in mental hospitals.
From BBC ● Nov. 29, 2025
To that end, Sinatra became the first major singer to regularly perform popular music in formal concert settings backed by a full symphony orchestra.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2025
Sitting with my feet on the soiled canvas I felt as though I had wandered into the percussion section of a symphony orchestra.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
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.
