Definition of A CAPPELLA

A Cappella Has Italian Roots

A cappella arrived in English from Italian sometime around the late-18th century. In Italian, a cappella means "in chapel or choir style." Cappella is the Italian word for "chapel"; the English word chapel is ultimately (if independently) derived from the Medieval Latin word cappella, which is the source of the Italian cappella as well. Scholars once thought all "chapel style" music written before the 1600s was performed a cappella, but modern research has revealed that instruments might have doubled or substituted for some voices back then. Today a cappella describes a purely vocal performance.

Examples of a cappella in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Based in New Haven, the Community Men’s Choir is a four-man a cappella gospel group reminiscent of the Motown sound from the 1960s and 1970s. — courant.com, "Community News For The Vernon Edition," 27 June 2019 Last summer, Ben Bram — the Grammy-winning arranger and producer for a cappella sensation Pentatonix — reached out to Mrozak. — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Citizen Queen could be the next big girl group. Milwaukee's Hannah Mrozak is one of the singers.," 17 June 2019 Over the years, Pentatonix has quickly become one of the most iconic a cappella groups in the world. — Gianluca Russo, Teen Vogue, "Pentatonix Releases "Evolution of Ariana Grande" Mashup," 27 Apr. 2019 The pair joined up again six years later to sing the same 1974 hit on The Voice, along with a cappella group Pentatonix. — Kelly O'sullivan, Country Living, "How Is Dolly Parton Related to Miley Cyrus?," 10 Feb. 2019 Pentatonix is a beatboxing a cappella group that really, really loves Christmas. — Natalie Maher, Harper's BAZAAR, "The Best New Christmas Songs of 2018," 12 Nov. 2018 During a Philadelphia show, the singer was stranded in the air while performing and, yet again, managed to breeze through the stage malfunction by singing a cappella and chatting with the crowd. — Zoë Weiner, Teen Vogue, "Taylor Swift Falls During Concert," 23 July 2018 The Whiffs, as they are known, and Yale’s senior women’s a cappella group, Whim ’n Rhythm, issued a joint announcement Feb. 1 that tryouts for both groups will now be open to all rising seniors. — Pat Eaton-robb, Cosmopolitan, "Yale's All-Male Glee Club Will Now Admit Women, Gender Non-Conforming Singers," 12 Feb. 2018 Midwest Vocal Express, a male a cappella chorus, will be performing a free show at 7 p.m. July 14. — Hannah Kirby, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "5 Things-to-do this week in the southwest suburbs," 9 July 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'a cappella.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.