Appoggiatura

//əˌpɒ.d͡ʒəˈtʊɹ.ə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A type of musical ornament, falling on the beat, which often creates a suspension and subtracts for itself half the time value of the principal note which follows.

    "The following Adagietto was like a long, melting appoggiatura composed of smaller dying falls and languid resolutions."

  2. 2
    an embellishing note usually written in smaller size wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
acciaccaturaarabesquecadencecadenzacoloraturaembellishment

Example

More examples

"The following Adagietto was like a long, melting appoggiatura composed of smaller dying falls and languid resolutions."

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian appoggiatura, derived from appoggiare (“to lean”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.