Word.ws English Dictionary

rasgueo

rasgueo noun: a strumming technique associated with flamenco guitar playing; rasgueado.

Noun

rasgueo (countable and uncountable, plural rasgueos)

  1. (uncountable) A strumming technique associated with flamenco guitar playing; rasgueado.
    • The prominent rhythm is ♩♫♩, with the first note receiving stress through an agogic or dynamic accent, by being arpeggiated rapidly, or with an upward movement of the rasgueo.1981, Robert Edwin Fogal, Traditional Music and the Middle Class: A Case Study of Mercedes, Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dissertation, Indiana University, page 189
    • There’s no denying that flamenco guitar with its machine-gun speed picking riffs and dizzying helicopter-like ‘rasgueo’ hand strums is physically punishing.2011 March 14, Ciaran Giles, “Spaniards eat up Cdn guitarist; Flamenco guitar traditionally an area dominated by men”, in Trail Times, Trail, British Columbia, page 8
  2. A passage within a song featuring guitar played with the technique.
    • On a larger structural level, there are semi-independent musical units or blocks, which, when placed within a compás and assembled, create a piece. These components include rasgueos (here I refer to the structural unit, which is comprised of the technique mentioned above), falsetas, llamadas (Eng....2021, Robin Foggo, “Flamenco: Musical Structure and the Practice of Improvisation”, in Musicologist, volume 5, →DOI, page 57

Examples of rasgueo in a sentence

  • There are several factors that contribute to the variety of options open to the guitar player when dealing with rasgueo.2021, Robin Foggo, “Flamenco: Musical Structure and the Practice of Improvisation”, in Musicologist, volume 5, →DOI, page 54:
  • These components include rasgueos (here I refer to the structural unit, which is comprised of the technique mentioned above), falsetas, llamadas (Eng. call), cierres and remates.2021, Robin Foggo, “Flamenco: Musical Structure and the Practice of Improvisation”, in Musicologist, volume 5, →DOI, page 57:

Forms of rasgueo

pluralrasgueos

Origin of rasgueo

From Andalusian Spanish rasgueo, regional form of rasgueado, from the verb rasguear (“strum”). Attested in English from the 20th century (see quotations below).

Questions about rasgueo

What does rasgueo mean?
Rasgueo means a strumming technique associated with flamenco guitar playing; rasgueado.
How do you use rasgueo in a sentence?
There are several factors that contribute to the variety of options open to the guitar player when dealing with rasgueo.
What part of speech is rasgueo?
Rasgueo is a noun.
What is the plural of rasgueo?
The plural of rasgueo is rasgueos.

Words near rasgueo in the dictionary

  1. rasgados
  2. rasgueado
  3. rasgueados
  4. rasguedo
  5. rasguedos
  6. rasgueo
  7. rasgueos
  8. rasgulla
  9. rasgullas
  10. rash
  11. rash fever

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rasgueo (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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