Word.ws English Dictionary

diminuendo

UK/dɪˌmɪnjuːˈɛndəʊ/

diminuendo noun: a dynamic mark directing that a passage is to be played gradually more softly.

Noun

diminuendo (plural diminuendos)

  1. A dynamic mark directing that a passage is to be played gradually more softly
  2. A passage having this mark
  3. (figuratively) The gradual dying away of something.
    • Thus, in "Flavia and Her Artists" (1905), for example, a fiction of consonance in diminuendo, the French subtext states a set of harmonies (the young American returned from France) and cacophonies (the supercilious French art critic, Roux) shedding light on the main text with its own consonances of...1988, Robert James Nelson, Willa Cather and France: In Search of the Lost Language, →ISBN, page 79
    • Harlow gazed, like Henry, out the wide corner window, enjoying the diminuendos of the light.1998, Edward Abbey, The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel, →ISBN

Adverb

diminuendo (comparative more diminuendo, superlative most diminuendo)

  1. played in this style

Adjective

diminuendo (comparative more diminuendo, superlative most diminuendo)

  1. describing a passage having this mark
    Synonyms:
    decrescendo

Synonyms of diminuendo

Antonyms

Forms of diminuendo

Noun
pluraldiminuendos
Adverb
comparativemore diminuendo
superlativemost diminuendo
Adjective
comparativemore diminuendo
superlativemost diminuendo

Origin of diminuendo

Borrowed from Italian diminuendo.

Questions about diminuendo

What does diminuendo mean?
Diminuendo means a dynamic mark directing that a passage is to be played gradually more softly.
What part of speech is diminuendo?
Diminuendo can be a noun, an adverb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce diminuendo?
Diminuendo is pronounced /dɪˌmɪnjuːˈɛndəʊ/ (UK).
What is the plural of diminuendo?
The plural of diminuendo is diminuendos.

Words near diminuendo in the dictionary

  1. diminishings
  2. diminishment
  3. diminishments
  4. diminisht
  5. diminue
  6. diminuendo
  7. diminuendos
  8. diminuent
  9. diminuitive
  10. diminute
  11. diminuted

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: diminuendo (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.

Last updated:

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