Word.ws English Dictionary

crescendi

UK/kɹɛˈʃɛndi/

crescendi is the plural of crescendo.

Meaning of crescendo

Noun

crescendo (plural crescendos or crescendi or crescendoes)

  1. An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left ( < ), by musicians called a hairpin.
    • As he came into the window / It was the sound of a crescendo1987, Michael Jackson, “Smooth Criminal”, in Bad
  2. (figuratively) A gradual increase of anything, especially to a dramatic climax.
    • Their fighting rose in a fearsome crescendo.
  3. (figuratively, nonstandard) The climax of a gradual increase.
    • Their arguing rose to a fearsome crescendo.

See all 5 meanings of crescendo

Questions about crescendi

What is crescendi the plural of?
Crescendi is the plural of crescendo.
How do you pronounce crescendi?
Crescendi is pronounced /kɹɛˈʃɛndi/ (UK).

Words near crescendi in the dictionary

  1. cres.
  2. Cresap
  3. Cresaps
  4. cresc
  5. crescence
  6. crescendi
  7. crescendo
  8. crescendoed
  9. crescendoes
  10. crescendoing
  11. crescendos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crescendi (page history and authors); crescendo (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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Cite this entry: “crescendi.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crescendi. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.