toccata

[ tuh-kah-tuh; Italian tawk-kah-tah ]

/ təˈkɑ tə; Italian tɔkˈkɑ tɑ /

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noun, plural toc·ca·tas, toc·ca·te

[tuh-kah-tee; Italian tawk-kah-te]. /təˈkɑ ti; Italian tɔkˈkɑ tɛ/. Music.

a composition in the style of an improvisation, for the piano, organ, or other keyboard instrument, intended to exhibit the player's technique.

QUIZ

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If autumn is your ideal season, spice up your repertoire of "fall" vocabulary with this quiz on some warm and vivid descriptive words for the season.

Question 1 of 10

Which of the following words means “to make a crackling sound; crackle”?

crisp

crepitate

fuscous

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Origin of toccata

1715–25; <Italian: “touched,” feminine past participle of toccare touch

Words nearby toccata

to burn, toby, toby jug, TOC, Tocantins, toccata, Toch, Tocharian, tocher, toches, tockley

How to use toccata in a sentence

Then it grows in strength, as if to compete with the Bach Toccata.
Plays--First Series|August Strindberg
But in Bach's hands the toccata becomes one of the noblest and most plastic of forms.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1|Various
Marise fumbled among the music on the piano and pulled out what they were working on, the Toccata in D minor.
Rough-Hewn|Dorothy Canfield
But the music was not all to the tune of “A Toccata of Galuppi's.”
The Life of Florence Nightingale vol. 1 of 2|Edward Tyas Cook

I wish you would send me Handel's six fugues and the toccata and fugues by Eberlin.
Life Of Mozart, Vol. 2 (of 3)|Otto Jahn

British Dictionary definitions for toccata

toccata

/ (təˈkɑːtə) /

noun

a rapid keyboard composition for organ, harpsichord, etc, dating from the baroque period, usually in a rhythmically free style

Word Origin for toccata

C18: from Italian, literally: touched, from toccare to play (an instrument), touch

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