noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A short piece of music, designed to give a performer practice in a particular area or skill.

   "The etudes with metronome markings should be played in tempo, all others should be considered rubato."

2. 2
   a short composition for a solo instrument; intended as an exercise or to demonstrate technical virtuosity wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

studyabsolute musicadaptationair variealeatoryaleatory music

Example

More examples

"The etudes with metronome markings should be played in tempo, all others should be considered rubato."

Etymology

From around the year 1837, borrowed from French étude (“study”) from Latin studium. Doublet of studio and study.

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