Definitions

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

  • adverb & adjective Slowing gradually. Used chiefly as a direction.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In music, slackening; retarding: a direction to sing or play with increasing slowness the notes over which it is written.

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

  • adjective (Mus.) Slackening; retarding. Same as rallentando.

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

  • adjective music Alternative form of rallentando.

Etymologies

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

[Italian, present participle of lentare, to make slow, from lento, slow; see lento.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Italian, present participle of lentare to make slow.

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Examples

  • Back in the 18th century they often used the term lentando, and even today there are a number of directions that mean roughly the same thing, the closest being ritardando, and also ritenuto, which generally implies a more sudden slowdown.

    News 2012

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