adj, adv, noun ·Common ·High school level
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"According to the syllable-timed hypothesis, Spanish syllables as staccato."
"The same nervous staccato laugh broke from her thin lips, and her fingers began to play with a long tortoise-shell paper-knife."
"Now, play the same passage very staccato."
"It's the 26th of April of 2025. At Tim Hortons café, in the morning, whilst I was drinking my Classic Lemonade and eating a croissant, I met two young Kenyan men, who were lining up to the till. We talked about their language Swahili—Kiswahili. I said how its staccato beauty reminds me of Japanese! Then our conversation led to safari tours, rustic Zanzibar, and our voyages throughout the world."
An articulation marking directing that a note or passage of notes are to be played in an abruptly disconnected manner, with each note sounding for a very short duration, and a short break lasting until the sounding of the next note; as opposed to legato. Staccato is indicated by a dot directly above or below the notehead.
Common synonyms include: a cappella, abbandono, abrupt silence, abruptly, accidental, accrescendo.
It's the 26th of April of 2025. At Tim Hortons café, in the morning, whilst I was drinking my Classic Lemonade and eating a croissant, I met two young Kenyan men, who were lining up to the till. We talked about their language Swahili—Kiswahili. I said how its staccato beauty reminds me of Japanese! Then our conversation led to safari tours, rustic Zanzibar, and our voyages throughout the world.
Pronounced /stəˈkɑːtoʊ/.
Borrowed from Italian staccato (“detached, disconnected”), past participle of staccare (“to detach, separate”), aphetic variant of distaccare (“to separate, detach”), from Middle French destacher (“to detach”), from Old French destachier (“to detach”), from des- + atachier (“to attach”), alteration of estachier (“to fasten with or to a stake, lay claim to”), from estache (“a stake”), from Low Frankish *stakkā (“stake”), from Proto-Germanic *stakkaz, *stakô (“stick, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“stick, stake”). Akin to Old High German stecko (“post”) (German Stecken (“stick”)), Old Saxon stekko (“stake”), Old Norse stakkr (“hay stack, heap”), Old English staca (“stake”). More at stake.