Word.ws English Dictionary

arpeggio

US/ɑɹˈpɛ.d͡ʒi.oʊ/

arpeggio noun: the notes of a chord played individually instead of simultaneously, usually moving from lowest to highest.

Noun

arpeggio (plural arpeggios or arpeggi)

  1. The notes of a chord played individually instead of simultaneously, usually moving from lowest to highest.
    • He struck the opening chords of the passage; but this time Irene's voice was silent. Victor stopped in the middle of an arpeggio.1956, Delano Ames, chapter 14, in Crime out of Mind

Verb

arpeggio (third-person singular simple present arpeggios, present participle arpeggioing, simple past and past participle arpeggioed)

  1. (transitive) To play (a chord) as an arpeggio; to play (a piece of music) with arpeggios.
    • In practising quick passages, the fingers should be lifted up with a spring, and not allowed to hang on the keys, till wanted again, unless in arpeggioing chords, or in passages of expression.1819, Abraham Rees (ed.), The Cyclopædia, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme & Brown, Volume 14, entry “Fingering on Keyed Instruments,”
    • […] I could see a man with his head buried forward towards a key-board, and his body swaying from side to side amid the storm of huge arpeggioed harmonies that came crashing overhead and round.1872, Samuel Butler, chapter 4, in Erewhon […] , London: Trübner & Co., →OCLC, page 29
    Synonyms:
    arpeggiate
  2. (intransitive) To produce arpeggios; to produce sounds resembling arpeggios.
    • Herr Schlitz seated himself on the piano chair, pushed it a little back, drew it a little forward to the original place, looked under the piano at the pedals, took out his handkerchief and wiped his face and hands, and after arpeggioing up and down the keyboard, swung into a waltz of Chopin’s […]1898, Edward Noyes Westcott, chapter 37, in David Harum, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 314
    • The soaring sound [of the whistling] rippled and trilled and arpeggioed as the songs of wild birds do not;1909, O. Henry, “Whistling Dick’s Christmas Stocking”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 357
  3. (ambitransitive, figuratively) To move (the hand or fingers) against a surface as if playing arpeggios on a keyboard; to touch different points in succession along a surface.
    • Her hand was still arpeggioing softly on his arm.1931, Kate O’Brien, Without My Cloak, London: Penguin, published 1987, Book 2, Chapter 8, p. 187
    • the prickle of horripilation which arpeggioed my spine as I came barrelling down the hill from that ghost house1966, Richard Lancaster, Piegan: A Look from Within at the Life, Times, and Legacy of an American Indian Tribe, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, page 168

Examples of arpeggio in a sentence

  • […] having finished her piano-forte practice, touched her harp twice, and arpeggioed the Spanish Fandango on her guitar, Miss Betty read two paragraphs of “Gilbert” […]1902, Booth Tarkington, chapter 1, in The Two Vanrevels, New York: McClure, Phillips, page 11:
  • When his fingers touched the piano, he formed a D7 chord, arpeggioed it up the inversions, then started singing and playing the “Happy Birthday” song.1990, Marcel Montecino, Big Time, New York: William Morrow, Book 3, p. 197:
  • The accordion player arpeggioed through a chord […]2012, Roshi Fernando, “At the Barn Dance”, in Homesick, New York: Vintage, page 166:
  • While we thanked him for having us and told him the car was packed, and so on, he arpeggioed his stumpy fingers across his scarlet blanket.2009, Kevin Crossley-Holland, The Hidden Roads, London: Quercus, page 136:

All 10 example sentences with arpeggio

Synonyms of arpeggio

Forms of arpeggio

Noun
pluralarpeggios
pluralarpeggi
Verb
third-person singular presentarpeggios
present participlearpeggioing
past participlearpeggioed
pastarpeggioed

Origin of arpeggio

Borrowed from Italian arpeggio, from arpeggiare (“to play a harp”).

Questions about arpeggio

What does arpeggio mean?
Arpeggio means the notes of a chord played individually instead of simultaneously, usually moving from lowest to highest.
How do you use arpeggio in a sentence?
[…] having finished her piano-forte practice, touched her harp twice, and arpeggioed the Spanish Fandango on her guitar, Miss Betty read two paragraphs of “Gilbert” […]
What part of speech is arpeggio?
Arpeggio can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce arpeggio?
Arpeggio is pronounced /ɑɹˈpɛ.d͡ʒi.oʊ/ (US).
What is the plural of arpeggio?
The plural of arpeggio is arpeggios.

Words near arpeggio in the dictionary

  1. arpeggiating
  2. arpeggiation
  3. arpeggiations
  4. arpeggiator
  5. arpeggiators
  6. arpeggio
  7. arpeggioed
  8. arpeggioing
  9. arpeggione
  10. arpeggiones
  11. arpeggionist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: arpeggio (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-arpeggio.wav.

Cite this entry: “arpeggio.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/arpeggio. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.