Viola meaning

vē-ō'lə
A stringed instrument of the violin family, slightly larger than a violin, tuned a fifth lower, and having a deeper, more sonorous tone.
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An organ stop usually of eight-foot or four-foot pitch yielding stringlike tones.
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A stringed instrument of the violin family, slightly larger than a violin, tuned a fifth lower, and having a deeper, more sonorous tone.
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An organ stop usually of eight-foot or four-foot pitch yielding stringlike tones.
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Any of various plants of the genus Viola, which includes the violets and pansies, especially certain ornamental varieties that are usually more compact than pansies and have smaller flowers without a blotch on the petals.
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Any of various plants of the genus Viola, which includes the violets and pansies, especially certain ornamental varieties that are usually more compact than pansies and have smaller flowers without a blotch on the petals.
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A stringed instrument of the violin family, slightly larger than a violin and tuned a fifth lower.
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A violet; esp., any of various violets developed from a pansy (Viola cornuta), grown as garden plants.
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A feminine name: dim. Vi.
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(music) A stringed instrument of the violin family, somewhat larger than a violin, played under the chin, and having a deeper tone.
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(music) An organ stop having a similar tone.
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(music) A 10-string steel-string acoustic guitar, used in Brazilian folk music.
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(botany) Any of several flowering plants, of the genus Viola, including the violets and pansies.
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A female given name.
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A town in Arkansas.
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A town in Delaware.
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A village in Illinois.
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A city in Kansas.
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A hamlet in New York.
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A town in Tennessee.
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A village in Wisconsin.
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Origin of viola

  • Italian from Old Italian from Old Provençal a kind of early viol ultimately of imitative origin (probably back formation from violar to play the viol) (from viu sound imitative of a hurdy-gurdy or viol)
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • Italian from Old Italian from Old Provençal a kind of early viol ultimately of imitative origin (probably back formation from violar to play the viol) (from viu sound imitative of a hurdy-gurdy or viol)
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • Middle English from Latin Greek ion (both Greek and Latin from a common unknown Mediterranean source)
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • Middle English from Latin Greek ion (both Greek and Latin from a common unknown Mediterranean source)
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • From Italian viola, from Old Provençal viola (modern Occitan viula), from Medieval Latin *vitula (“stringed instrument").
    From Wiktionary
  • From Latin viola (“violet").
    From Wiktionary
  • From Latin viola (“violet")
    From Wiktionary

Viola Sentence Examples

  • - Dog Violet (Viola canina), half nat.

  • In Beethoven's orchestration there is almost always room for an independent viola part.

  • Classical and modern chamber-music in the sonata style consists mainly of string-quartets for 2 violins, viola and violoncello; string-trios (rare, because very difficult to write sonorously); pianoforte-trios (pianoforte, violin and violoncello); pianoforte-quartets (pianoforte with string-trio); pianoforte-quintets (pianoforte with string-quartet); string-quintets (with 2 violas, very rarely with 2 violoncellos), and (in two important cases by Brahms) stringsextets.

  • sopranino recorder, violin and bass viola da gamba.

  • For example, it has often been said that the extent to which their orchestral viola parts double the basses is due, partly to bad traditions of Italian opera, and partly to the fact that viola players were, more often than not, simply persons who had failed to play the violin.

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Words near viola in the Dictionary