Play this passage legato, not portato.
Source: wiktionary
Legato
//ləˈɡɑ.toʊ//
Synonyms for "legato" (73 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (15)
Strong matches (22)
Related words (36)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Antonyms
3 entriesRelated terms
1 entriesderived
1 entrieshas context
1 entriesis a
1 entriesrelated to
4 entriesTranslations
30 translations across 16 languages.
Armenian
2 entries- լեգատո adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- լեգատո noun (slur curve)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 連奏 /连奏 noun (slur curve)
Dutch
2 entries- gebonden adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
Finnish
4 entries- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- sitoen adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- legato noun (slur curve)
- legatokaari noun (slur curve)
French
2 entries- lié adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- lié noun (slur curve)
German
4 entries- gebunden adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- gebunden noun (slur curve)
- legato noun (slur curve)
Greek
2 entries- λεγκάτο adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- λεγκατούρα noun (slur curve)
Italian
1 entries- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
Japanese
1 entries- レガート noun (slur curve)
Māori
2 entries- rōnaki adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- rōnaki noun (slur curve)
Norwegian
1 entries- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
Polish
2 entries- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- legato noun (slur curve)
Russian
2 entries- лега́то adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
- лега́то noun (slur curve)
Spanish
1 entries- ligado noun (slur curve)
Tagalog
1 entries- banayad noun (slur curve)
Turkish
1 entries- legato adv (music: smoothly, in a connected manner)
Sample sentences
8 total sentences available.
It is the coördination of the finger and hand as examplified in the proportionate speed of shifting according to the speed of the musical passage, which makes for evenness, continuity, smoothness, and ultimately, a fine legato.
Source: wiktionary
At the end of the prelude of Caprice V, there is a chromatic ascending and descending scale of forty-eight notes to be played in one bow in legato.
Source: wiktionary
Clementi, in his "Introduction to the art of playing the piano-forte" (1801) still had to advise pianists that : "the best general rule is to keep the keys of the instrument suppressed during the whole length of the note" (p.8) and "whenver the composer leaves the legato or staccato to the taste of the performer, the best rule is to use the legato in most cases and to reserve the staccato in order to give particular passages more spirit and to enhance the higher beauties of the legato."
Source: wiktionary
Showing 4 of 8 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.