Word.ws English Dictionary

recitatives

recitatives is the plural of recitative.

Meaning of recitative

Noun

recitative (plural recitatives)

  1. dialogue, in an opera etc, that, rather than being sung as an aria, is reproduced with the rhythms of normal speech, often with simple musical accompaniment or harpsichord continuo, serving to expound the plot.
    • In Gilbert and Sullivan's Patience, Bunthorne performs the recitative "Am I Alone and Unobserved?" before going on to his solo aria "If You're Anxious For To Shine".

See all 2 meanings of recitative

Questions about recitatives

What is recitatives the plural of?
Recitatives is the plural of recitative.

Words near recitatives in the dictionary

  1. recitationists
  2. recitations
  3. recitative
  4. recitativelike
  5. recitatively
  6. recitatives
  7. recitativo
  8. recitativoes
  9. recitativos
  10. recite
  11. recited

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: recitatives (page history and authors); recitative (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: “recitatives.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/recitatives. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.