Definitions

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

  • adverb & adjective In a very soft or quiet tone. Used chiefly as a direction.
  • noun A part of a composition played very softly or quietly.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In music, very soft; with the minimum of force or loudness. Usually abbreviated pp or ppp.

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

  • adjective (Mus.) Very soft; -- a direction to execute a passage as softly as possible. (Abbrev. pp.)

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

  • adverb music The musical term indicating that the piece (or a section of it) should be played very softly.
  • noun A dynamic sign indicating that a portion of music should be played pianissimo.
  • noun A portion of music that is played very softly.

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

  • adverb a direction in music; to be played very softly
  • noun (music) low loudness
  • adjective chiefly a direction or description in music; very soft

Etymologies

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

[Italian, superlative of piano, soft; see piano.]

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