aria means A musical piece written typically for a solo voice with orchestral accompaniment in an opera or cantata. It carries an Arena rating of 1678, earned across 16 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, aria ranks #188 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #1,664 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,578 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #6,948 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words.
aria is pronounced /ˈɑː.ɹi.ə/.
Why “aria” is a great word
A melodic set-piece for a solo voice, usually with orchestral accompaniment, that expresses a character’s interior emotion within an opera or cantata. From Italian aria, meaning 'air, melody, tune,' from Latin aer and Greek aēr ('air'), first attested in English in 1775. Unlike the 'recitative,' which pushes the plot forward in urgent, speech-like rhythms, or the general 'song,' which can be any vocal composition, an aria is a formalized expanse of feeling. It is the held breath before the glass shatters, the crystallized tear on a cheek, the private ecstasy that swells to fill a hall—a brief, glorious rebellion against the relentless forward march of the story, a moment where feeling becomes too large for action and must be sung instead.
Etymology
From Italian aria, metathesis from Latin āerem, accusative of āēr, from Ancient Greek ἀήρ (aḗr, “air”). Doublet of air.
noun
- A musical piece written typically for a solo voice with orchestral accompaniment in an opera or cantata.
name
- region in modern-day Afghanistan
- A female given name from English.e.g.“Aria Montgomery burrowed her face in her best friend Alison DiLaurentis's lawn.” — 2006, Sara Shepard, chapter 1, in Pretty Little Liars, Hachette Digital, →ISBN:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- ariette 68% match — A short aria, or air. vs aria →
- arialike 68% match — Resembling or characteristic of an aria. vs aria →
- arietta 67% match — a short aria. vs aria →
- arioso 66% match — A musical style, in opera and oratorio, that is more melodic than recitative, but less so than aria. vs aria →
- ariose 64% match — Melodic and song-like. vs aria →
- cantata 63% match — A vocal composition accompanied by instruments and generally containing more than one movement, typical of 17th and 18th century Italian music. vs aria →
- oratorio 63% match — A musical composition, often based on a religious theme; similar to opera but with no costume, scenery or acting. vs aria →
- recitative 62% match — dialogue, in an opera etc, that, rather than being sung as an aria, is reproduced with the rhythms of normal speech, often with simple musical accompaniment or harpsichord continuo, serving to expound the plot. vs aria →