alto

alto (ˈæltəʊ)

—n , pl -tos
1.	the highest adult male voice; countertenor
2.	(in choral singing) a shortened form of contralto
3.	a singer with such a voice
4.	another name for viola
5.	a flute, saxophone, etc, that is the third or fourth highest instrument in its group

—*adj*
6.	denoting a flute, saxophone, etc, that is the third or fourth highest instrument in its group

[C18: from Italian: high, from Latin altus]

alto-

—*combining form*
	high: altocumulus; altostratus

[from Latin altus high]

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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

alto

1784, "man with an alto voice," from It., from L. altus "high" (see old). Now more commonly applied to the lower range of women's voices (which is more strictly the contralto), an extension first recorded in 1881.

American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

alto definition

The lowest range of the female singing voice, also called contralto. (Compare mezzo soprano and soprano.)

Example sentences

Our voices have the knowing, late-night duskiness of alto-sax jazz.

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alto horn alto-relievo basset horn countertenor East Palo Alto male alto

Matching Quote

"In middle life each man wrote a long elegiac work centering on the death of someone very near his heart: Tennyson's In Memoriam surely corresponds to Brahms' German Requiem.... At the other extreme you will no doubt think of Brahms' fiery Hungarian dances and graceful Viennese waltzes: in the work of Tennyson there are similar pieces, in broad dialect with touches of rough comedy and unbuttoned jollity, in particular "The Northern Farmer." Between these extremes, in the work of each man, lies a single masterpiece, strange but characteristic. Tennyson's Maud is what he calls a monodrama, a set of lyrics spoken by one man, telling the story of tragic love. In 1869 Brahms lost the beautiful Julie Schumann: the result was his famous Alto Rhapsody, an extended lyric, in fact a monodrama on the agonies of loneliness in a heart thirsty for love. The nineteenth century was a nationalist era, so both Brahms and Tennyson wrote pieces we should now call jingoistic: they are seldom played or read today, but they are part of the total picture. For Brahms the best known was his Triumph Song, written after the German conquests of France. For Tennyson, it was "The Charge of the Light Brigade," and other galloping and shouting lyrics."

-Gilbert Highet

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