Word.ws English Dictionary

contraltos

contraltos is the plural of contralto.

Meaning of contralto

Noun

contralto (plural contraltos or contralti)

  1. The lowest female voice or voice part, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. The terms contralto and alto refer to the same musical pitch range, but among singers, the term contralto is reserved for female singers; the equivalent male form is counter-tenor. Originally the contratenor altus was a high countermelody sung against the tenor or main melody.
    • As for her dress, it was invariably rich, effective, and chic, yet in good taste. Lastly, her feet and hands were astonishing, and her voice a deep contralto.1867, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, chapter III, in The Gambler, translated by C. J. Hogarth^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Gambler_(1867)/III)
    Synonyms:
    alto

Questions about contraltos

What is contraltos the plural of?
Contraltos is the plural of contralto.

Words near contraltos in the dictionary

  1. contralaterals
  2. contralesional
  3. contralesionally
  4. contralti
  5. contralto
  6. contraltos
  7. contrametric
  8. contramodule
  9. contramodules
  10. contranarian
  11. contranatural

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: contraltos (page history and authors); contralto (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)-Wodencafe-contraltos.wav.

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