volta

¹ American  

[vohl-tuh, vol-, vawl-tah] / ˈvoʊl tə, ˈvɒl-, ˈvɔl tɑ /

noun

plural

volte, voltas

1. Music. turn; time (used in phrases).

   una volta (“once”);

   prima volta (“first time”).

2. Poetry. a rhetorical turn, especially in a sonnet; a sudden shift in theme or emotion.

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Volta ² American  

[vohl-tuh, vawl-tah, vol-tuh, vohl-] / ˈvoʊl tə, ˈvɔl tɑ, ˈvɒl tə, ˈvoʊl- /

noun

1. Count Alessandro 1745–1827, Italian physicist.

2. a river in W Africa, in Ghana, formed by the confluence of the Black Volta and the White Volta and flowing S into the Bight of Benin. About 250 miles (400 km) long; with branches about 1,240 miles (1,995 km) long.

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Volta ¹ British  

/ ˈvɒltə /

noun

1. a river in W Africa, formed by the confluence of the Black Volta and the White Volta in N central Ghana: flows south to the Bight of Benin: the chief river of Ghana. Length: 480 km (300 miles); (including the Black Volta) 1600 km (1000 miles)

2. an artificial lake in Ghana, extending 408 km (250 miles) upstream from the Volta River Dam on the Volta River: completed in 1966. Area: 8482 sq km (3275 sq miles)

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Volta ² British  

/ ˈvɔlta, ˈvəʊltə /

noun

1. Count Alessandro (alesˈsandro). 1745–1827, Italian physicist after whom the volt is named. He made important contributions to the theory of current electricity and invented the voltaic pile (1800), the electrophorus (1775), and an electroscope

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volta ³ British  

/ ˈvɔlta, ˈvɒltə /

noun

1. a quick-moving Italian dance popular during the 16th and 17th centuries

2. a piece of music written for or in the rhythm of this dance, in triple time

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Volta Scientific  

/ vōl′tə /

1. Italian physicist who in 1800 invented the voltaic pile, which was the first source of continuous electric current. The volt unit of electromotive force is named for him.

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Etymology

Origin of volta

1635–45; < Italian: a turn; volt ²

Example Sentences

Minot still has a poet’s instinct for the surprising volta, the striking image, the bracing final line.

From New York Times • Sep. 4, 2020

In Lock’s sonnets, the conjunctions that would typically signal a volta are often a ruse.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 5, 2019

“A indústria”, falou de Mello, “deu a volta no sistema”.

From New York Times • Sep. 16, 2017

“Believing,” with its implication of subsequent disbelief, works like a volta, a sudden turn into the impossible.

From Slate • Jan. 7, 2016

The following sonnet is remarkable for its last four lines having puzzled all the poet's commentators to explain what he meant by the words "Al man ond' io scrivo è fatta arnica, a questo volta."

From The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch by Campbell, Thomas