Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb & adjective Gradually accelerating or quickening in time. Used chiefly as a direction.
  • noun An accelerando passage or movement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • With gradual increase of speed: a direction in music, indicating that a passage is to be played with increasing rapidity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective (Mus.) Gradually accelerating the movement.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music A tempo mark directing that a passage is to be played at an increasing speed.
  • noun music A passage having this mark.
  • adverb music with a gradual increase in speed

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb with increasing speed
  • adjective gradually increasing in tempo
  • noun a gradually increasing tempo of music

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, present participle of accelerare, to hasten, from Latin accelerāre; see accelerate.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from Italian accelerando, from Latin accelero.

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Examples

  • “Well, there’s this thing I learned in music theory called accelerando,” I offered.

    I slept with Joey Ramone Mickey Leigh 2009

  • “Well, there’s this thing I learned in music theory called accelerando,” I offered.

    I slept with Joey Ramone Mickey Leigh 2009

  • “Well, there’s this thing I learned in music theory called accelerando,” I offered.

    I slept with Joey Ramone Mickey Leigh 2009

  • “Well, there’s this thing I learned in music theory called accelerando,” I offered.

    I slept with Joey Ramone Mickey Leigh 2009

  • Unsatisifed, i nixed two of the segments and kept the accelerando and started fiddling with its placement.

    breaking in the new blog 2008

  • I'm fine with left-handed flam paradiddle-diddles because I'm right-handed, but Mrs. Karash expects me to alternate left and right, and to accelerando, until I'm playing flam paradiddle-diddles fast like syncopated rolls.

    Moe Tucker 2008

  •   Finally, I get the flam paradiddle-diddles going and I begin my accelerando.

    Moe Tucker 2008

  • Finally, I get the flam paradiddle-diddles going and I begin my accelerando.

    Moe Tucker 2008

  •   I'm fine with left-handed flam paradiddle-diddles because I'm right-handed, but Mrs. Karash expects me to alternate left and right, and to accelerando, until I'm playing flam paradiddle-diddles fast like syncopated rolls.

    Moe Tucker 2008

  •   She uses fat marching sticks, her hands arthritic, weightless flam paradiddle-diddles tossed off left and right, her accelerando poised and controlled.

    Moe Tucker 2008

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