Word.ws English Dictionary

tessitura

/tɛsɪˈtʊəɹə/

tessitura noun: the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a singer or musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding timbre.

Noun

tessitura (countable and uncountable, plural tessituras or tessiture)

  1. The most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a singer or musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding timbre.
    • Byrne shrugged. He started writing a bravura / Opera based on Cleopatra’s death, / Exploiting all Maria’s tessitura, / With a high F before her final breath.1995, Anthony Burgess, Byrne
    • Anne's talented voice made the lines I had written swoop, howl, and whine through an authentically Thatcherite tessitura [...].2006, Clive James, North Face of Soho, Picador, published 2007, page 257

Forms of tessitura

pluraltessituras
pluraltessiture

Origin of tessitura

Borrowed from Italian tessitura. Doublet of texture.

Words that rhyme with tessitura

18 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about tessitura

What does tessitura mean?
Tessitura means the most acceptable and comfortable vocal range for a singer or musical instrument; the range in which a given type of voice presents its best-sounding timbre.
What part of speech is tessitura?
Tessitura is a noun.
How do you pronounce tessitura?
Tessitura is pronounced /tɛsɪˈtʊəɹə/.
What is the plural of tessitura?
The plural of tessitura is tessituras.

Words near tessitura in the dictionary

  1. Tessie
  2. Tessier
  3. Tessin
  4. Tessitore
  5. Tessitores
  6. tessitura
  7. tessituras
  8. tessiture
  9. Tessler
  10. Tesslers
  11. Tessman

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tessitura (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: “tessitura.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tessitura. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.