crescendo adj : gradually increasing in volume n : (music) a gradual increase in loudness v : grow louder; "The music crescendoes here" [ant: decrescendo] [also: crescendi (pl)]

see Crescendo

English

Etymology

Italian crescendo, gerund of crescere, to grow, to increase

Pronunciation

• kɹəˈʃɛn.dʊ
• Hyphenation: cres·cen·do

Noun

1. An instruction to play gradually more loudly, denoted by a long, narrow angle with its apex on the left. Abbreviation: cresc. Symbol <
2. A gradual increase of anything, especially to a dramatic climax.

   Their fighting rose in a fearsome crescendo.

3. In the context of "figuratively|nonstandard": The climax of a gradual increase.

   Their arguing rose to a fearsome crescendo.

Translations

• Chinese: (Simplified Chinese) 渐强 / (Traditional Chinese) 漸強 (jianqiang)
• German: Crescendo
• Hebrew: קרשנדו
• Japanese: クレシェンド (kureshendo)
• Korean: 점강음 (jeomgangeum)
• Latin: crescens nominative, crescentis genitive
• Polish: crescendo
• Russian: крещендо (kreshshendo)
• Swedish: crescendo (music)

Usage notes

• The musical sense indicates that the figurative sense is an increase rather than the climax of the increase. The use of this word to mean the climax of an increase is nonstandard but commonplace.

Antonyms

• diminuendo
• (figurative, nonstandard) climax, conclusion

Italian

Verb

crescendo

1. (gerund of crescere) growing, increasing

Noun

1. crescendo
2. crescendo

Swedish

Noun

crescendo

1. crescendo

Crescendo, in musical notation, refers to a passage of music during which the volume gradually increases.

It also may mean:

In music

• A Liverpool based electronic pop band
• Crescendo International, a network of Christian classical music professionals and students
• Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue, one of Duke Ellington's longer-form compositions
• Insanity's Crescendo, a song by Dark Tranquillity
• The Crescendos, an early rock and roll group
• A lyric in "Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson, King of pop

In film

• Crescendo (1970 film), a 1970 British thriller
• Crescendo, a 2003 gay pornographic film by French director Jean-Daniel Cadinot.
• A term Alfred Hitchcock used to describe the major setpieces in his films

In computing

• Crescendo was a computer networking company that was acquired by Cisco in the 1990s.
• Crescendo Networks is a company which develops and sells application acceleration devices for data centers
• Crescendo (visual novel), a bishoujo game by the studio Digital Objet.
• Crescendo Systems Corporation is a Canadian company that develops and sells digital dictation, speech recognition and document management software for the healthcare and legal sectors.

In languages other than English

• Crescendo is an Italian and Portuguese word which means "growing"

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