staccato

staccato
    adv 1: separating the notes; in music; "play this staccato,
           please" [ant: {legato}]
    adj 1: (music) marked by or composed of disconnected parts or
           sounds; cut short crisply; "staccato applause"; "a
           staccato command"; "staccato notes" [syn: {staccato},
           {disconnected}] [ant: {legato}, {smooth}]
    

Staccato \Stac*ca"to\ (st[.a]k*k[aum]"t[-o]), a. [It., p. p. of
   staccare, equivalent to distaccare. See {Detach}.]
   1. (Mus.) Disconnected; separated; distinct; -- a direction
      to perform the notes of a passage in a short, distinct,
      and pointed manner. It is opposed to {legato}, and often
      indicated by heavy accents written over or under the
      notes, or by dots when the performance is to be less
      distinct and emphatic.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Expressed in a brief, pointed manner.
      [1913 Webster]

            Staccato and peremptory [literary criticism]. --G.
                                                  Eliot.
      [1913 Webster]
    

188 Moby Thesaurus words for "staccato":
      a cappella, abbandono, accidental, accrescendo, adagietto, adagio,
      affettuoso, agilmente, agitato, allegretto, allegro, amabile,
      amoroso, andante, andantino, appassionatamente, appassionato,
      arrhythmia, beat, beating, breve, brillante, cantando, capriccioso,
      ceaseless, ceaselessness, chattering, clicking, con affetto,
      con agilita, con agitazione, con amore, constancy, constant,
      constant flow, continual, continualness, continuity, crescendo,
      crotchet, decrescendo, demilegato, demisemiquaver, diminuendo,
      dolce, dominant, dominant note, double whole note, drumming,
      eighth note, enharmonic, enharmonic note, execution, expression,
      fingering, flat, flutter, fluttering, forte, fortissimo, glissando,
      half note, heartbeat, heartthrob, hemidemisemiquaver, incessancy,
      incessant, intonation, lamentabile, larghetto, larghissimo, largo,
      legato, leggiero, machine gun, marcando, mezzo staccato, minim,
      morendo, music-making, musical note, natural, noninterruption,
      note, oscillating, oscillation, palpitant, palpitation, parlando,
      patent note, perennial, performance, perpetual, perpetuity,
      pianism, pianissimo, piano, pitapat, pitter-patter, pizzicato,
      pounding, prestissimo, presto, pulsatile, pulsating, pulsation,
      pulsative, pulsatory, pulse, pulsing, quarter note, quaver,
      quick fire, rallentando, rapid, rapid fire, rapid recurrence,
      rapid succession, rapidity, rat-a-tat, rataplan, regular,
      regularity, rendering, rendition, repeated, repercussion,
      repetition, report, responding note, rhythm, rhythmic, ritardando,
      ritenuto, rubato, scherzando, scherzo, scherzoso, semibreve,
      semiquaver, shaped note, sharp, sixteenth note, sixty-fourth note,
      slur, sordo, sotto voce, spattering, spiccato, spluttering,
      sputtering, steadiness, steady, stretto, stuttering, sustained,
      sustained note, sustainment, tattoo, tempo, tercet,
      thirty-second note, throb, throbbing, thrumming, thumping, ticking,
      tone, touch, tremolando, tremoloso, trillando, triplet, unbroken,
      unceasing, unchanging, unintermission, unintermitted,
      unintermittent, unintermitting, uninterrupted, uninterruption,
      unremitting, unstopped, unvarying, vibrating, vibration,
      whole note