Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adverb & adjective Gradually slackening in tempo; ritardando. Used chiefly as a direction.
- noun A rallentando passage or movement.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In music, becoming slower; with decreasing rapidity. Also
rallentato . Abbreviated rall. Compareritardando and ritenuto.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Mus.) Slackening; -- a direction to perform a passage with a gradual decrease in time and force; ritardando.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective music
slackening ; becoming slower (used as amusical direction ).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adverb slowing down
- adjective gradually decreasing in tempo
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Italian, present participle of rallentare, to slow down : re-, intensive pref. (from Latin; see re–) + allentare, to slow down (from Late Latin allentāre : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin lentus, slow).]
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Examples
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reesetee commented on the word rallentando
In music, progressively slower
February 23, 2007