Word.ws English Dictionary

passacaglia

/ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/US/ˌpɑsəˈkɑljə/

passacaglia noun: a form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.

Noun

passacaglia (countable and uncountable, plural passacaglias)

  1. A form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.
    • In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other...1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] , second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3
  2. (broadly) Any piece of classical music with similar characteristics.

passacaglia meaning in Tagalog

passacaglia in Tagalog

historical Spanish dance
pasakalye

Forms of passacaglia

pluralpassacaglias
alternative formpassacaille
alternative formpassecaille

Origin of passacaglia

Borrowed from Italian passacaglia, from Spanish pasacalle, from pasar (“to pass”) + calle (“street”).

Questions about passacaglia

What does passacaglia mean?
Passacaglia means a form of historical Spanish or Italian dance characterised by a serious nature, triple meter, and use of a ground bass.
What is passacaglia in Tagalog?
Passacaglia in Tagalog is pasakalye. See Passacaglia meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is passacaglia?
Passacaglia is a noun.
How do you pronounce passacaglia?
Passacaglia is pronounced /ˌpasəˈkɑːlɪ.ə/ (UK).
What is the plural of passacaglia?
The plural of passacaglia is passacaglias.

Words near passacaglia in the dictionary

  1. pass/no pass
  2. passability
  3. passable
  4. passableness
  5. passably
  6. passacaglia
  7. passacaglias
  8. passacaille
  9. passacailles
  10. passade
  11. passades

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: passacaglia (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:

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

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