Definitions

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

  • adverb & adjective With a gradual decrease in volume and often tempo. Used chiefly as a direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music, a direction to slacken the time and decrease the volume of tone gradually.

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

  • adjective (Mus.) Gradually diminishing in rapidity and loudness.

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

  • adjective gradually decreasing in tempo and volume

Etymologies

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

[Italian, present participle of calare, to slacken, from Latin calāre, from Greek khalān.]

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Examples

  • My own favorite is calando, which I picked up from Webern.

    Fragende Ode Matthew Guerrieri 2008

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