Definition of "forte-piano" []

• Music In a loud, then suddenly soft, manner. Used chiefly as a direction. (adverb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Among the list of Professor Chua's "don'ts" during the rearing of her own children was allowing them to attend sleepovers; to get grades beneath an "A"; and to play any instrument other than the violin or piano no exclusion for the viola or forte-piano."
• "The next name given to it was _forte-piano_, which signified soft, with power; and this name became _piano-forte_, which it still retains."
• "Philadelphia, who "has invented one of the prettiest improvements in the forte-piano I have ever seen.""