Meanings
plural diminuendos
- entertainmentA passage having this mark
- figurativelyThe gradual dying away of something.
Harlow gazed, like Henry, out the wide corner window, enjoying the diminuendos of the light.
1998, Edward Abbey, The Fool's Progress: An Honest Novel, →ISBN2 more examples
Thus, in "Flavia and Her Artists" (1905), for example, a fiction of consonance in diminuendo, the French subtext states a set of harmonies (the young American returned from France) and cacophonies (the supercilious French art critic, Roux) shedding light on the main text with its own consonances of intergenerationsl friendship, marital loyalty, artistic pleasure, and joyful lesbianism.
1988, Robert James Nelson, Willa Cather and France: In Search of the Lost Language, →ISBN, page 79Jillian haad the kind of charm that wore off. Or after enough romantic diminuendos, that's what she theorized.
2018, Lionel Shriver, The Standing Chandelier
comparative more diminuendo · superlative most diminuendo
- entertainmentplayed in this style
comparative more diminuendo · superlative most diminuendo
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivedescribing a passage having this mark
More synonyms by meaning
adjective(music) gradually decreasing in volume
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Italiandiminuendo
- Italiandiminuendo
- Englishdiminuendo
Borrowed from Italian diminuendo.
More words from Italian
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Mandarin 漸弱 /渐弱
- 漸弱 /渐弱 (jianruo)music: dynamic mark
Dutch diminuendo
- diminuendomusic: dynamic mark
Finnish diminuendo, diminuendo
- diminuendomusic: dynamic mark
- diminuendomusic: passage
- hiipuminengradual dying away of something
German Diminuendo
- Diminuendomusic: dynamic mark
Japanese ディミヌエンド
- ディミヌエンド (diminuendo)music: dynamic mark
Korean 데크레셴도, 디미누엔도
- 데크레셴도 (dekeuresyendo)music: dynamic mark
- 디미누엔도 (diminuendo)music: dynamic mark
Cite this entry
diminuendo. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diminuendo
“diminuendo.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diminuendo. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “diminuendo,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/diminuendo.
Source: diminuendo on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.