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Definition of "ritardando" [‖Ri•tar•dan•do]

  • Music Gradually slowing in tempo; retarding. 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.

Use "ritardando" in a sentence
  • "He followed this rhetorical question with the same two notes, ritardando, played four quaver chords, then a bar which disrupted one's expectations by the introduction of a rest and a pair of semiquavers, and very shortly broke into cascades of chorded and unchorded semiquavers that left Pelagia open-mouthed."
  • "The combination of _crescendo_ and _ritardando_ is also tremendously effective."
  • "But children are usually not able to keep their minds on the task in hand to this extent, and if there is to be a _ritardando_ or a _crescendo_ at a certain point, the only safe thing is to teach this change in tempo or dynamics when first taking up the song, so that the expressional element may become"
Words like "ritardando"