Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A musician with masterly ability, technique, or personal style.
- n. A person with masterly skill or technique in the arts.
- n. A person with a strong interest in the fine arts, especially in antiquities.
- n. Archaic A very learned person.
- adj. Exhibiting the ability, technique, or personal style of a virtuoso: a virtuoso performance.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An experimental philosopher; a student of things by direct observation.
- n. One who has an instructed appreciation of artistic excellence; a person skilled in or having a critical taste for any of the elegant arts, as painting, sculpture, etc.; one having special knowledge or skill in antiquities, curiosities, and the like.
- n. One who is a master of the mechanical part of a fine art, especially music, and who makes display of his dexterity. See virtuosity, 2.
Wiktionary
- n. A person (especially a musician) with masterly ability, technique, or personal style
- adj. Exhibiting the ability of a virtuoso
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One devoted to virtu; one skilled in the fine arts, in antiquities, and the like; a collector or ardent admirer of curiosities, etc.
- n. (Mus.) A performer on some instrument, as the violin or the piano, who excels in the technical part of his art; a brilliant concert player.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or revealing supreme mastery or skill
- n. a musician who is a consummate master of technique and artistry
- n. someone who is dazzlingly skilled in any field
Etymologies
- From Italian, from Late Latin virtuosus, "virtuous", from Latin virtus, "excellence". (Wiktionary)
- Italian, skilled, of great worth, virtuoso, from Late Latin virtuōsus, virtuous, from Latin virtūs, excellence; see virtue. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Mr. Hamelin finds the word "virtuoso," which is invariably applied to his playing, a somewhat derogatory descriptive that implies mere showmanship, he said during a recent interview in a practice room at Mannes.”
“Jourdan Urbach, a violin virtuoso who discovered when he was performing in hospitals at seven years old that music could stimulate the brain and spark healing in children with neurological problems.”
“Segerstrom will also host German violin virtuoso Julia Fischer on the 12th and Les Violins du Roy in a Baroque program on the 20th.”
“Rosas becomes a violin virtuoso and a prolific composer.”
“(Seen here, Caramoor co-founder and Theremin virtuoso Lucie Rosen.)”
“Now, how often do we hear the violin virtuoso saying that his mother made him practice?”
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“Cellini uses the word virtuoso in many senses, but always more with reference to intellectual than moral qualities.”
“Kottke became known as a virtuoso via his innovative finger-picking technique, and he plays the guitar with an ease that makes it seem like an extension of his body.”
“The British team, currently playing sYnck for the Extreme Masters qualifier, started the game against the Estonian side under the name virtuoso, and speculation suggesting that 4Kings had parted ways with the team immediately surfaced.”
“It's ambitious - Rubin refers to guitarist Nathan Howdeshell as a "virtuoso" - but crucially it still sounds like a Gossip record, albeit one made with time, care and money.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘virtuoso’.
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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MUSIC - jazz
funky, pedal, bebop, rap, mix, sub, mid, rag, ECM, bpm, bop, Afro and 437 more...
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people (good)
nouns for good people / words that describe good people.
go to the bad people list
( people, character, descriptor, noun )philanthropist, angel, environmentalist, activist, advocate, volunteer, hero, parent, friend, virtuoso, gentleman, helper and 62 more...
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A _____ walks into a bar...
horse, bear, termite, grasshopper, panda, cowboy, guy with a chunk ..., duck, talking dog, guy with a toad o..., guy, blind man and 74 more...
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Randomocity
Jeepers, Gadzooks, Golly Gee Whitickers,
squalor,, oodles,, pedantic, snarky, tchotchke, prima donna, hovel, canoodle, juxtapositions, nouveau riche, chagrin, factotum and 12 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
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Vocab ##5
appint, monarch, counterpart, muse, bestow, unwitting, aghast, admonish, wage, decree, cavalry, phalanx and 126 more...
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kingofbash's Words
bash, poleaxed, salacious, libertine, charlatan, aplomb, fortuitous, finagle, apoplectic, debutante, carte blanche, aardvark and 472 more...
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SAT Vocab
Redundant.
problematic, proclivity, prodigal, prodigious, prodigy, profane, profligate, profound, profusion, proliferation, prolific, prologue and 455 more...
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Words from "Pearls Before Breakfast"
nondescript, shrewd, seed money, bureaucrat, indeterminate, fungible, cupidity, banal, grandeur, utilitarian, buffer, ecstatic and 123 more...
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List Erine
cool mint antiseptic
shalom, cattywampus, bourgeoisie, aerophile, traverse, grotto, epicurean, ex cathedra, nautilus, epitaph, lathe, continuum and 753 more...
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Favorites
machiavellian, mercurial, deus ex machina, synecdoche, litotes, phallic, freudian, metonymy, chrestomathy, falsifiable, gestalt, truthiness and 211 more...
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Revised GRE Wordlist_2013
Vocabulary building for my quest of GRE 2013
ephemeral, esoteric, rhetoric, censure, egregious, pittance, dupe, mulct, paucity, alacrity, maintain, laconic and 997 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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artoparts's Words
illation, finite, edify, abide, abrade, vouch, amiss, vociferate, perusing, techantiquery, rigamarole, holon and 615 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for virtuoso.
mollusque I once heard Peter Schickele in a P. D. Q. Bach performance render this as "virtuasuoso". Sep 28, 2011
csiders09 Nice Word! Virtuoso. I'm planning on mastering the skill of audio engineering involving music, so the definition of this word definitely caught my eye! I'm still on the 10,000 hour rule, practicing every day so hopefully I can get better in the field of audio engineering. Sep 28, 2011
Kristianto2010 A major US newspaper has called Christopher Parkening “the leading guitar virtuoso of our day, combining profound musical insight with complete technical mastery of his instrument.” Mar 1, 2011