Cadenza

//kəˈdɛnzə// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A part of a piece of music, such as a concerto, that is very decorative and is played by a single musician.

    "Yes, laugh, as I want to laugh for instance in the concert hall when the orchestra trundles to a stop and the virtuoso at his piano, hunched like a demented vet before the bared teeth of this enormous black beast of sound, lifts up deliquescent hands and prepares to plunge into the cadenza."

  2. 2
    a brilliant solo passage occurring near the end of a piece of music wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To become agitated or excited. South-Africa, slang

Synonyms

All synonyms
acciaccaturaappoggiaturaarabesquecadencecoloraturadivision

Example

More examples

"Mistaking cadenza with decadence would be a great mistake."

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian cadenza, from Latin cadentia. Doublet of cadence and chance.

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