Definitions

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

  • adjective Music Cut short crisply; detached.
  • adjective Marked by or composed of abrupt, disconnected parts or sounds.
  • noun A staccato manner or sound.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In music, detached; disconnected; abrupt; separated from one another by slight pauses: used both of single tones in a melody and of chords: opposed to legato.
  • noun In music, the act, process, or result of singing or playing on an instrument in a staccato manner.

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

  • adjective (Mus.) Disconnected; separated; distinct; -- a direction to perform the notes of a passage in a short, distinct, and pointed manner. It is opposed to legato, and often indicated by heavy accents written over or under the notes, or by dots when the performance is to be less distinct and emphatic.
  • adjective Expressed in a brief, pointed manner.

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

  • noun music An articulation marking directing that a note or passage of notes are to be played in an abruptly disconnected manner, with each note sounding for a very short duration, and a short break lasting until the sounding of the next note; as opposed to legato. Staccato is indicated by a dot directly above or below the notehead.
  • noun music A passage having this mark.
  • adverb music played in this style
  • adjective music describing a passage having this mark
  • adjective Made up of abruptly disconnected parts or sounds.

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

  • adverb separating the notes; in music
  • adjective (music) marked by or composed of disconnected parts or sounds; cut short crisply

Etymologies

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

[Italian, past participle of staccare, to detach, short for distaccare, from obsolete French destacher, from Old French destachier; see detach.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Italian staccato "detached, disconnected", past participle of staccare "to detach, separate", aphetic variant of distaccare "to separate, detach" from Middle French destacher "to detach" from Old French destachier "to detach" from des- +‎ attachier (“to attach”), alteration of estachier "to fasten with or to a stake, lay claim to" from estach(e) "a stake", from Low Frankish *stakka "stake", from Proto-Germanic *stakkaz, *stakkēn (“stick, stake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)teg- (“stick, stake”). Akin to Old High German stecko "post" (German Stecken "stick"), Old Saxon stekko "stake", Old Norse stakkr "hay stack, heap", Old English staca "stake". More at stake.

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Examples

  • ‡ The term staccato has been applied generally to things that occur in rapid bursts, such as gunfire.

    staccato 2002

  • Mieville gropes for a prose style in the opening hundred pages or so, meaning that the opening part of the book is delivered in short, staccato bursts, one moment enjoyable, the next annoyingly obtuse to the point of turgidness.

    Kraken by China Mieville Adam Whitehead 2010

  • Mieville gropes for a prose style in the opening hundred pages or so, meaning that the opening part of the book is delivered in short, staccato bursts, one moment enjoyable, the next annoyingly obtuse to the point of turgidness.

    Archive 2010-04-01 Adam Whitehead 2010

  • For much of the first half of the film Moon blurts out her lines in staccato style, which had me concentrating more on her acting than the movie.

    Filmstalker Review: The Devil's Rejects 2006

  • The word made Dave remember how his own thoughts came in staccato bursts, like fireworks that rose and flared, abruptly lighting his consciousness before just as quickly fading into the night sky.

    vignette: empty Dean Francis Alfar 2005

  • Instead, I find myself thinking in staccato bursts.

    Archive 2003-05-01 Dean Francis Alfar 2003

  • Instead, I find myself thinking in staccato bursts.

    notes from the peanut gallery Dean Francis Alfar 2003

  • Speaking in staccato tones and gesticulating sharply, he calls for support of jihad to liberate the children of Iraq, Palestine, and Afghanistan.

    Radical Islam finds unlikely haven in liberal Britain 2002

  • The facts came into his mind in short staccato statements.

    The Murder Room James, P. D. 1988

  • He spoke in a low voice in short staccato phrases.

    Three Soldiers John Dos Passos 1933

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