A crescendo is a noise that gets louder and louder. Some people also use crescendo to refer to the point when a noise is at its loudest.
She spoke in a crescendo: 'You are a bad girl! You are a wicked girl! You are evil!'.
The crescendo of noise was continuous.
The applause rose to a crescendo and cameras clicked.
2. countable noun [usually singular]
People sometimes describe an increase in the intensity of something, or its most intense point, as a crescendo.
[journalism]
There was a crescendo of parliamentary and press criticism. [+ of]
And now the story reaches a crescendo.
3. countable noun [usually singular]
In music, a crescendo is a section of a piece of music in which the music gradually gets louder and louder.
crescendo in British English
(krɪˈʃɛndəʊ)
nounWord forms: plural-dos or -di (-dɪ)
1. music
a.
a gradual increase in loudness or the musical direction or symbol indicating this
Abbreviation: cresc. Symbol: (written over the music affected) ≺
b.
(as modifier)
a crescendo passage
2.
a gradual increase in loudness or intensity
the rising crescendo of a song
3.
a peak of noise or intensity
the cheers reached a crescendo
verbWord forms: -does, -doing or -doed
4. (intransitive)
to increase in loudness or force
adverb
5.
with a crescendo
Word origin
C18: from Italian, literally: increasing, from crescere to grow, from Latin
crescendo in American English
(krɪˈʃɛnˌdoʊ)
[also in italics]; Music
adjective, adverb
1.
with a gradual increase in loudness
often used as a musical direction, indicated by the sign
nounWord forms: pluralcreˈscenˌdos
2. Music
a.
a gradual increase in loudness
b.
a crescendo passage
3.
any gradual increase in force, intensity, etc.
verb intransitiveWord forms: creˈscenˌdoed or creˈscenˌdoing
4.
to increase gradually in loudness or intensity
Word origin
It, ger. of crescere: see crescent
Examples of 'crescendo' in a sentence
crescendo
The global outcry had reached a crescendo.
The Sun (2013)
Over the next six days the attacks reached a crescendo.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The gradual crescendo through the first movement is particularly exciting.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
It all happened in a blur of speed and a thumping crescendo of sound.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
It's best to reach a crescendo of deep sharing that naturally leads to deep praying.
Christianity Today (2000)
As the music reached a crescendo, we held each other tighter.
Times, Sunday Times (2014)
As the music reached a crescendo, our instructor went into overdrive.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
We were out on the track for 15 minutes and the sound was this crescendo building up.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
I entered just as the choir practice reached a triumphant crescendo.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
August is also a month for powerful thunderstorms, and for many places thunder and lightning this month reach their crescendo for the whole year.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
Only gradually, in the weeks following publication, did the controversy rise to a crescendo.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The taste for melodramatic costume changes that seems to afflict the epoch's entire cast reaches a crescendo in a section devoted to the allegorical portrait.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Think swaggering verses, an uplifting chorus and a mighty brass crescendo perfect for ringing in the great British summer.
The Sun (2013)
As the song reaches a crescendo, she drops to her knees, lost in the raw emotion of her thoughts.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Word lists with
crescendo
Musical expressions and tempo instructions
In other languages
crescendo
British English: crescendo NOUN
A crescendo is a noise that gets louder and louder. Some people also use crescendo to refer to the point when a noise is at its loudest.