HOW TO PRONOUNCE
adagio
/əˈdɑʒiˌoʊ/
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American Pronunciation Guide · 0:39
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What does adagio mean?
noun
- A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played rather slowly, leisurely and gracefully.
- A passage having this mark.
- A male-female duet or mixed trio ballet displaying demanding balance, spins and/or lifts.
More meanings (3)
adverb
- Played rather slowly.
adjective
- Describing a passage having this mark.
proper noun
- A surname.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/əˈdɑʒiˌoʊ/
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
Lydian measures; slow music, slow movement; adagio &c.
The overture, beginning with an adagio movement in B-flat minor, gives expression to the vague yearnings of that time of doubt and hesitancy when the "oracles were dumb," and the dawning of a new era of stronger and diviner faith was matter of presentiment rather than of definite hope or expectation.
More book examples (1)
I have heard an Italian conductor (no longer living) take the adagio of that symphony at a lively allegretto, slowing down for the warmer major sections into the speed and manner of the heroine's death song in a Verdi opera; and the listeners, far from relieving my excruciation by rising with yells of fury and hurling their programs and opera glasses at the miscreant, behaved just as they do when Richter conducts it.