Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The sounding of the tones of a chord in rapid succession rather than simultaneously.
  • noun A chord played or sung in this manner.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The sounding of the notes of an instrumental chord in rapid succession, either upward or (rarely) downward, as in harp-playing, instead of simultaneously.
  • noun A chord thus sounded; a broken chord. Sometimes written harpeggio.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) The production of the tones of a chord in rapid succession, as in playing the harp, and not simultaneously; a strain thus played.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music The notes of a chord played individually instead of simultaneously, usually moving from lowest to highest.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a chord whose notes are played in rapid succession rather than simultaneously

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, from arpeggiare, to play the harp, from arpa, harp, of Germanic origin; see harp.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Italian arpeggiare ("to play a harp").

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Examples

  • Cut one over the other, so that each animal's arpeggio is mapped to appropriate newscasters and personalities (I want the duck's music mapped the Bush, I do!) and release it online.

    Boing Boing: December 15, 2002 - December 21, 2002 Archives 2002

  • The word arpeggio (plural arpeggi) is a derivation of the

    Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928

  • He came up with a very beautiful, odd, staccato kind of arpeggio thing, melting into a wistful resolve.

    Rebecca Pidgeon: Huff Post Exclusive Music Download 2008

  • After a few opening bars in "arpeggio" a vibrant voice resounded, the tones of which appeared to stir the Provencal to the depths of his being.

    The Lesser Bourgeoisie Honor�� de Balzac 1824

  • And how do you distinguish that from the typical arpeggio which is written out in, say, eighth notes (or as Bach did with the Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude #1, sixteenth notes)?

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] JDWpianist 2010

  • And how do you distinguish that from the typical arpeggio which is written out in, say, eighth notes (or as Bach did with the Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude #1, sixteenth notes)?

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] TK 2010

  • And how do you distinguish that from the typical arpeggio which is written out in, say, eighth notes (or as Bach did with the Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude #1, sixteenth notes)?

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] JDWpianist 2010

  • And how do you distinguish that from the typical arpeggio which is written out in, say, eighth notes (or as Bach did with the Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude #1, sixteenth notes)?

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] Ed Poor 2010

  • And how do you distinguish that from the typical arpeggio which is written out in, say, eighth notes (or as Bach did with the Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude #1, sixteenth notes)?

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] TK 2010

  • And how do you distinguish that from the typical arpeggio which is written out in, say, eighth notes (or as Bach did with the Well-Tempered Clavier Prelude #1, sixteenth notes)?

    Conservapedia - Recent changes [en] JDWpianist 2010

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