alfabeto

Meanings

nounalfabeto (uncountable)

uncountableNoodles shaped like letters of the alphabet.
Holonym: alphabet soup
1 more example
Small pastas like orzo, acini di pepe, pastina, alfabeto, and ditalini are perfect for adding to soups.
2016, The New Slow Cooker Cookbook, Adams Media
historicaluncountableentertainmentAn early Italian alphabetic notation system used to describe chords.
In the Italian system, each letter of the alfabeto represents a chord formation on the guitar (the letter A, for example, represents a G-major chord).
1993, Stanley Yates, The baroque guitar, late Spanish style as represented by Santiago de Murcia in the Salvidar manuscript (1732)
2 more examples
The monograph should deal not only with modal scales (their range, ambitus, "centonized" gestures, cadences, and structural application in music) but would similarly need to deal with the guitar's alfabeto, the labyrinth of guitar chords, movable chords, transposed chords, the progressions of B quadro and B molle in the alfabeto books, and so forth.
1987, Journal of the Lute Society of America, volumes 17-18, page 127
Composers for harpsichord, lute, viol, and guitar often placed chords or ornaments on notes in the positions of those strummed downward in the alfabeto tablatures, and composers for all instruments gave longer values to many of them.
1987, Betty Bang Mather, Dance Rhythms of the French Baroque: A Handbook for Performance, page 30

Borrowed from Italian alfabeto (“alphabet”). Doublet of alphabet.

More words from Italian

Cite this entry

APA

alfabeto. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alfabeto

MLA

“alfabeto.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alfabeto. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “alfabeto,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/alfabeto.

Source: alfabeto on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.