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piano

1 American  
[pee-an-oh, pyan-oh] / piˈæn oʊ, ˈpyæn oʊ /

noun

plural

pianos

  1. a musical instrument in which felt-covered hammers, operated from a keyboard, strike the metal strings.

piano 2 American  
[pee-ah-noh, pyah-naw] / piˈɑ noʊ, ˈpyɑ nɔ /

adjective

  1. soft; subdued.

adverb

  1. softly. p, p.

piano 1 British  
/ pɪˈænəʊ /

noun

  1. a musical stringed instrument resembling a harp set in a vertical or horizontal frame, played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike the strings and produce audible vibrations See also grand piano upright piano

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Piano 2 British  
/ pjˈɑno /

noun

  1. Renzo. born 1937, Italian architect; buildings include the Pompidou Centre, Paris (1977; with Richard Rogers), the Potsdamer Platz redevelopment, Berlin (1998), and The Shard, London (2012)

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
piano 3 British  
/ ˈpjɑːnəʊ /

adjective

  1.  p.  music (to be performed) softly

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
piano Cultural  

  1. A musical direction meaning “to be performed softly”; the opposite of forte. As the name of a musical instrument, it is short for pianoforte.

Etymology

Origin of piano1

First recorded in 1795–1805; short for pianoforte

Origin of piano2

1675–85; < Italian: soft, low (of sounds), plain, flat < Latin plānus plain 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Leah: I actually just... for the first time since I learned to play the piano, I've just got a keyboard at home.

From BBC

Growing up in Brighton Beach, Sedaka exhibited a musical proclivity at an early age, earning a piano scholarship to Juilliard’s children’s division when he was 8 years old.

From Los Angeles Times

Her income as a piano teacher couldn’t have been much; she probably struggled financially.

From Literature

She also learned karate and took piano lessons after retiring in 1998.

From The Wall Street Journal

“But I genuinely loved the material. A few days later I met with the team at Shondaland and a week after that I was at piano lessons.”

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.