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Definition of "intermezzo" [‖In•ter•mez•zo]

  • A brief entertainment between two acts of a play; an entr'acte. (noun)
  • Music A short movement separating the major sections of a lengthy composition or work. (noun)
  • Music An independent instrumental composition having the character of such a movement. (noun)

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 "intermezzo" in a sentence
  • "To make this even more tedious, on page 397 (twenty-one pages after Rothko first walked into the ship's bar) there is a kind of intermezzo between these two redundant descriptions of that first night out, in which we are told: "In May of 1959 Mark and Mell Rothko were preparing to leave New York for their second trip to Europe.""
  • "The album "Black Tears" was a kind of intermezzo featuring familiar songs next to a few previously unreleased songs."
  • "Mango sorbet was the intermezzo; a heart shaped chocolate garnish adding a second Valentines note to the meal."