Stretto

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈstrÉ›təʊ/
• Rhymes: -É›təʊ

Origin

Italian stretto.

Full definition of stretto

Noun

1. (music) The presence of two close or overlapping statements of the subject of a fugue, especially towards the end.
2. (music) An acceleration in the tempo of an opera that produces an ending climax.

Adverb

1. (music) With gradually increasing speed.

Adjective

1. (music) Having gradually increasing speed.
• 1960, Thomas Pynchon, Entropy, So that over and above the public components – holidays, tourist attractions – there are private meanderings, linked to the climate as if this spell were a stretto passage in the year’s fugue: haphazard weather, aimless loves, unpredicted commitments…

Anagrams

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