violoncello
Americannoun
plural
violoncellosnoun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of violoncello
1715–25; < Italian, equivalent to violon ( e ) violone + -cello diminutive suffix
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.
It does not have the alternate darkness and brightness of the violin or the alternate bass strength and majesty and tenor fervor of the violoncello, but preserves a characteristic romantic melancholy throughout.
From Time Magazine Archive
After the guests had taken their chairs, Casals bent over his 250-year-old Goffriller violoncello and, with a characteristic grimace, began to draw out the golden notes of Mendelssohn's Trio in D Minor.
From Time Magazine Archive
It is a member of the viol family, lying midway between the violin and the violoncello.
From Time Magazine Archive
Jacobsen's three comrades—Marie Roemaet-Rosanoff, violoncello; Paul Bernard, second violin; Louis Kaufman, viola—are of U. S. birth.
From Time Magazine Archive
Quartet for two violins, viola, and violoncello, in F minor; ded. to Secretary Zmeskall; composed 1810.
From Beethoven: A Memoir (2nd Ed.) by Graeme, Elliott
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.
