Definitions

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

  • noun The act or art of improvising.
  • noun Something improvised, such as a musical passage or comedic skit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of improvising; the act of composing poetry or music extemporaneously.
  • noun A product of extemporaneous composition; an impromptu poem or musical performance.

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

  • noun The act or art of composing and rendering music, poetry, and the like, extemporaneously.
  • noun That which is improvised; an impromptu.

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

  • noun The act or art of composing and rendering music, poetry, and the like, extemporaneously; as, improvisation on the organ.
  • noun That which is improvised; an impromptu.
  • noun Musical technique, characteristic of blues music.
  • noun The act of improvising, acting or going about something without planning ahead

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

  • noun a creation spoken or written or composed extemporaneously (without prior preparation)
  • noun an unplanned expedient
  • noun a performance given extempore without planning or preparation

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French improvisation.

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