What does "ricercar" mean?

An instrumental musical composition, fugal in style but in a more serious character and with longer notes.

What is a synonym for "ricercar"?

Common synonyms include: adaptation, aleatory, arrangement, chamber music, composition, descant.

Pronounced //ˌriːt͡ʃəɹˈkɑːɹ(eɪ)//.

//ˌriːt͡ʃəɹˈkɑːɹ(eɪ)// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An instrumental musical composition, fugal in style but in a more serious character and with longer notes.

From Italian ricercare.

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