Definition of ADAGIO

Examples of adagio in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web: Adverb or adjective Next comes adagio work, or slower sustained movements and balances, without the aid of a barre. — New York Times, "Dancers Still Need Daily Class. No Barre? Just Grab a Chair.," 25 Mar. 2020 But in the sublime, time-stopping Poco adagio, the gentle purr of the organ beneath the orchestra sounds one-dimensional. — Barbara Jepson, WSJ, "Uncertain Tempo," 31 Dec. 2018 And extreme contrasts - the fourth movement has rapidly, repeatedly alternating speeds, adagio to presto - were narrowed, giving little shock. — Alan Artner, chicagotribune.com, "In the heat, Moser, Grant Park Orchestra perform a delicate Dvorak," 30 June 2018 Recent Examples on the Web: Noun The outer movements are nervy and restless, never settling, set against a still, melancholy adagio. — E.c., The Economist, "Classical music A trio-sonata playlist," 21 May 2020 That’s how Beethoven said he was inspired to write the Molto adagio movement of Op. — Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times, "17 Works, 9 Hours, 10 Days: My Beethoven Quartet Marathon," 4 Feb. 2020 But the adagio third movement, the symphony’s centerpiece, proved somewhat disappointing on this night. — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, "Review: Ken-David Masur starts a promising new chapter with Civic Orchestra," 22 Oct. 2019 This middle movement follows an A-B-A ternary structure where the opening material is a lyrical adagio and the contrasting middle section presents more rhythmic, scherzo-like music. — Jessica Rudman, courant.com, "Review: Guest conductor, teen prodigy pianist shine in HSO’s ‘Chopin and Franck’ program," 7 Dec. 2019 The following night, his typical, upbeat confidence was again adagio. — Alejandro Varela, Harper's magazine, "Carlitos in Charge," 16 Sep. 2019 In Perlman’s hands, the adagio movement spoke with unmistakable melodic clarity and moments of intimacy and stillness not easily achieved in an outdoor setting. — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, "Classical reviews: Perlman’s triumph at Ravinia; Grant Park’s disappointing finale," 18 Aug. 2019 At each stage of class—the barre exercises, the serene adagio movements, and allegro jumps from petit to grande—there’s a code, a recipe, literal steps to doing things well. — Matt Ortile, SELF, "Whenever My Life Feels Out of Control, I Go to Ballet Class," 16 Aug. 2018 Everything built to the sublime adagio whose slow unfolding was superbly controlled and brought beautiful playing from the CSO string choir, even if the hall’s parched acoustics bleached the sound of resonance. — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Review: Esa-Pekka Salonen leads the CSO in an eloquent Mahler Ninth Symphony," 18 May 2018

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

Learn More about adagio

Dictionary Entries near adagio

Statistics for adagio

Cite this Entry

“Adagio.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adagio. Accessed 30 May. 2020.

Which is a synonym of exiguous?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ

adagio