Definitions

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

  • noun A four-stringed musical instrument of the violin family, pitched lower than the viola but higher than the double bass.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An abbreviation of violoncello: often written 'cello.

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

  • noun A contraction for violoncello.

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

  • noun music A large stringed instrument of the violin family with four strings. (From lowest to highest C-G-D-A)

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

  • noun a large stringed instrument; seated player holds it upright while playing

Etymologies

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

[Short for violoncello.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • I associate cello with kaddish, based on Bruch's "Kol Nidrei".

    February 5, 2008

  • I love the sound of the cello.

    February 5, 2008

  • Bach's Cello Suite is beautiful.

    February 5, 2008

  • Bruch's "Kol Nidrei" is beautiful isn't it? And of course Bach's cello suites.

    Someone told me that the cello is the instrument closest in timbre to the human voice.

    My favourite cello work is Elgar's cello concerto, which he wrote after WWI and is full of loss and hurt, except for a couple of brief skylarkish passages. But Shostakovich and Dvorak wrote amazing cello concertos too.

    February 6, 2008

  • I have a CD of Jacqueline DuPre playing the Elgar concerto (presumably recorded before her disease had reached the advanced stage), which has so much raw emotion it's almost too heartbreaking to listen to.

    Kind of like how some of the first season episodes of Six Feet Under are so good, they are almost unbearable to watch.

    February 6, 2008