commedia dell'arte

noun

com·​me·​dia del·​l'ar·​te kə-ˌmā-dē-ə-(ˌ)del-ˈär-tē How to pronounce commedia dell'arte (audio)
kə-ˌme-
: Italian comedy of the 16th to 18th centuries improvised from standardized situations and stock characters

Examples of commedia dell'arte in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The crooner displaced the commedia dell'arte Pierrot on my list of (sad) male archetypes this year. Laird Borrelli-Persson, Vogue, 23 Dec. 2023 The initiative kicks off April 2 with Richard Bean's One Man, Two Guvnors, a rollicking update of Carlo Goldoni's commedia dell'arte classic, The Servant of Two Masters, relocated to the English seaside town of Brighton in 1963. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Mar. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'commedia dell'arte.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Italian, literally, comedy of art

First Known Use

1823, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of commedia dell'arte was in 1823

Dictionary Entries Near commedia dell'arte

Cite this Entry

“Commedia dell'arte.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commedia%20dell%27arte. Accessed 31 Oct. 2024.

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