Definitions

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

  • noun The prolongation of a tone, chord, or rest beyond its indicated time value.
  • noun The sign indicating this prolongation.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In music:
  • noun A pause or break; especially, in a concerto, a pause in the accompaniment to give room for an extended cadenza by the soloist
  • noun A hold or pause upon a tone or chord, the length being discretionary with the performer or conductor.
  • noun The sign or placed over or under a note or even a bar to indicate such a hold or pause. See hold.

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

  • noun music The holding of a note or rest for longer than its usual duration; also the notation of such a prolongation, usually represented as a dot with a semi-circle above it, written above the prolonged note or rest.

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

  • noun a musical notation (over a note or chord or rest) that indicates it is to be prolonged by an unspecified amount
  • noun (music) a prolongation of unspecified length on a note or chord or rest

Etymologies

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

[Italian, from feminine past participle of fermare, to stop, from Latin firmāre, to make firm, from firmus, firm; see dher- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian fermata, from fermare ("to stop").

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Examples

  • The _fermata_ or _hold_ [fermata symbol] over a note or chord indicates that the tone is to be prolonged, the duration of the prolongation depending upon the character of the music and the taste of the performer or conductor.

    Music Notation and Terminology Karl Wilson Gehrkens 1928

  • The sax held the final fermata, a wistful confession, and bent it into tune.

    Chameleon Andrew Clarke 2011

  • He was diplomatic, too, even reassured the oboist about her big fermata: "Take 2 bars and I'll make sure you have enough time."

    Laurence Vittes: Have Baton, Will Travel: Classical Music Combine in New Orleans Laurence Vittes 2011

  • He was diplomatic, too, even reassured the oboist about her big fermata: "Take 2 bars and I'll make sure you have enough time."

    Laurence Vittes: Have Baton, Will Travel: Classical Music Combine in New Orleans Laurence Vittes 2011

  • The sax held the final fermata, a wistful confession.

    Chameleon Andrew Clarke 2011

  • Sometimes he transitioned subtly from one tune to another by means of an arco bass solo from Mr. August; at other points he simply stopped playing one composition and started playing the next one without so much as a fermata between them.

    Reviving Sounds and Legends 2010

  • Aside from the backwards 6, I love the fermata on the first cake. 16 forever?

    They'll NEVER Notice 2010

  • Perhaps a fermata on your chest to signify "Hold me!"

    Ink-Stained Wretch Matthew Guerrieri 2007

  • So we have a bunch of harmonies with no functional relationship to each other, and a couple of diametrically opposed tempi jammed together with a fermata.

    Archive 2006-09-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2006

  • So we have a bunch of harmonies with no functional relationship to each other, and a couple of diametrically opposed tempi jammed together with a fermata.

    Alone together Matthew Guerrieri 2006

Comments

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  • Italian - stop (noun).

    December 11, 2008

  • afermative!

    December 11, 2008

  • Hold me!

    December 12, 2008