Adagio definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (14)

adverb Music In a slow tempo, usually considered to be slower than andante but faster than larghetto. Used chiefly as a direction.
noun Music A slow passage, movement, or work, especially one using adagio as the direction.
noun A section of a pas de deux in which the ballerina and her partner perform steps requiring lyricism and great skill in lifting, balancing, and turning.

It presents, in front, a dial-plate like that of a clock, on which are arranged, in a circle, the words largo, adagio, andante, allegro, presto . — Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies
Then comes the adagio, where, as always, the mystery seems to be developing itself, where the earnest-seeking solemnly consecrates itself to success; and the minuet and finale conclude—the soaring, mocking, hellish laughter of fiends and demons of the air, at baffled curiosity and blighted hope. — Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis
The very movement of the adagio, while it expresses a deep, solemn hope, seems to mourn with unutterable sorrow that the hope must be only consecrated and profound, never realized. — Early Letters of George Wm. Curtis
The left hand being quite independent in the tempo rubato of an adagio, they cannot at all comprehend. — The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vol.1.
The second an adagio, "Ecce enim in iniquitatibus." — The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Vol.1.