glissando means either a continuous sliding from one pitch to another ("true" glissando), or an incidental scale played while moving from one melodic note to another ("effective" glissando). It carries an Arena rating of 1799, earned across 13 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, glissando ranks #47 of 42,762 for Qualifying, #95 of 17,142 for Most Ingenious Words, #485 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #569 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words.
Why “glissando” is a great word
A continuous slide from one musical pitch to another, either sounding every infinitesimal intermediate frequency or creating the illusion of such through a rapid, seamless scale. From French *glisser* (to slip, slide) + Italian *-ando* (gerund ending). Unlike portamento, which denotes an unbroken, often expressive vocal or string-borne glide, or arpeggio, the successive, distinct sounding of a chord's notes, glissando is the smear of pitch itself. It is the trombone’s greased slide into a blue note, the harpist’s glittering sweep across silver strings, or the pianist’s blunt, white-key rake from dissonance into clarity—a fleeting dissolution of pitch into pure motion, where only the fall remains.
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian glissando.
noun
- Either a continuous sliding from one pitch to another ("true" glissando), or an incidental scale played while moving from one melodic note to another ("effective" glissando).e.g.“After another alternation of the two elements, there is a more playful episode, in which flute and bassoon take up the first element, with swooping glissando on the ondes Martenot.” — 2018, Robert Philip, The Classical Music Lover's Companion to Orchestral Music, Yale University Press, →ISBN, page 465:
- A method of playing an electric guitar in which a metal bar is held at right angles across the strings and rapidly moved up and down, creating a smooth, lush sound.
verb
- To play with a glissando or sliding effect.
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.