PIANO
What does "PIANO" mean?
A large keyboard instrument whose strings are struck by hammers to make sound.
Meanings
- A keyboard instrument in which pressing keys drives felt hammers against tuned strings. He practiced scales on the upright piano every morning.
- In music, an instruction to play softly. The score marks the opening passage piano, then swells to forte. technical
Did you know?
- The piano's name is a contradiction: 'pianoforte' means 'soft-loud', because Cristofori's invention around 1700 could finally do both depending on how hard you struck a key - something the harpsichord could not.
Word origin
Shortened from Italian 'pianoforte', literally 'soft-loud', from 'piano' (soft) and 'forte' (loud); the name captures the instrument's then-new ability to play both dynamics by touch.
Remember it
PIANO holds the Italian 'piano' for soft - the half of 'pianoforte' that survived in the everyday name.
A little poem
Black keys, white keys wait-
one finger wakes a hammer,
the room fills with rain.
haiku
Wordplay
- Why did the pianist always whisper her instrument's name? Because piano means soft.
What it teaches
True range lives between the softest touch and the loudest - the gentle note matters as much as the grand one.
Quick facts
What does PIANO mean?
A large keyboard instrument whose strings are struck by hammers to make sound.
Is PIANO a valid word?
Yes — PIANO is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is PIANO?
PIANO has 5 letters and 3 syllables.
Where does PIANO come from?
Shortened from Italian 'pianoforte', literally 'soft-loud', from 'piano' (soft) and 'forte' (loud); the name captures the instrument's then-new ability to play both dynamics by touch.
What can PIANO teach us?
True range lives between the softest touch and the loudest - the gentle note matters as much as the grand one.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.