Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Soprano |
SopranoAdjective1. Having or denoting a high range; "soprano voice"; "soprano sax"; "the boy still had a fine treble voice"; "the treble clef". Noun1. A female singer. 2. The highest female voice; the voice of a boy before puberty. 3. The pitch range of the highest female voice. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "soprano" was first used: 1730. (references) |
Etymology: Soprano \So*pra"no\, noun; plural English Sopranos, Italian Soprani. [Italian expression, from soprano superior, highest, from sopra above, from Latin expression supra. See Sovereign.]. (Websters 1913) |
Synonym: SopranoSynonym: treble (n). (additional references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The word "soprano" generally refers to a female singer of this highest vocal range and to her voice. Boy singers whose voices have not changed are known either as "boy sopranos" or, in the Anglican and English Catholic traditions, as trebles. Some adult male singers use a special technique without using falsetto in order to sing in this high range, and they are known as sopranistas.
More generally, a soprano is the highest member of a group of similar instruments (for example, the soprano saxophone).
In opera, the character and timbre of soprano voices are often categorized according to the German Fach system. The soprano Facher, with examples of respective roles, are:
Famous sopranos have often caused opera enthusiasts to divide into opposing "clubs" supporting one singer over another. The rivalry between the respective fans of Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi, for example, was one of the most famous of all opera (see anecdotes in La Tosca article).
Some famous or well known sopranos include:
See also:
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Soprano."
Crosswords: Soprano |
| English words defined with "soprano": Beverly Sills, Brigit Nilsson ♦ Callas, castrato, collaborate, coloratura, coloratura soprano, cooperate ♦ Dame Joan Sutherland, Dame Kiri Janette Te Kanawa, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Nellie Melba, debut ♦ Eileen Farrell ♦ Farrell ♦ get together ♦ Helen Porter Mitchell, Helen Traubel, hold ♦ Jenny Lind, Jessye Norman, Joan Sutherland, join forces ♦ Leontyne Price, Lind ♦ Maria Callas, Maria Meneghini Callas, Marta Brigit Nilsson, Mary Leontyne Price, Melba, mezzo, mezzo-soprano ♦ Nilsson, Norman ♦ price ♦ quality ♦ Renata Tebaldi, rotate ♦ sign, Sills, Soprani, sopranino, Sopranos, Sutherland, Swedish Nightingale ♦ Te Kanawa, Tebaldi, timber, timbre, tone, Traubel. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "soprano": Alamoth. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "soprano": Sovereign. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Soprano" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Albanian (descant, soprano), Esperanto (soprano), French (soprano, treble), Italian (descant, soprano, treble), Portuguese (coloratura, soprano, treble), Romanian (descant, soprano), Serbo-Croatian (treble), Spanish (soprano), Turkish (soprano, treble). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | The Soprano family has always been a little pushy. (The Sopranos; writing credit: Isabel Clara-Simo; Ramn De Espaa) There was a time in my life when being with the Tony Soprano crew was all I ever dreamed of. So what am I doing? (The Sopranos; writing credit: Isabel Clara-Simo; Ramn De Espaa) | |
Movie/TV Titles | God Is No Soprano (2003) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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High Tech |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Soprano Eleanor Steber singing favorites from the Firestone Hour, with Russ Case and his orchestra, an RCA Victor Red Seal release. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Bach festival. Nathleen Rea, twenty-three years old, a graduate student at Lehigh University, sings soprano. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Frances Alda, soprano, full-length portrait, facing front. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Carol Deis, soprano, half-length portrait, facing front. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Blanche Berndt Mehaffey, soprano. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | Soprano saxophone soloing in a minor 3/4 piece. | | Soprano saxophone solo in a highly rhythmic contemporary jazz excerpt. |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Soprano" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 98.14% of the time. "Soprano" is used about 161 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 98.14% | 158 | 24,965 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 1.86% | 3 | 202,518 |
| Total | 100.00% | 161 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "soprano": coloratura soprano ♦ soprano clef ♦ soprano treble. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "soprano": mezzo-soprano. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "soprano"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | soprano (descant). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | نديوي, صاحب هذا الصوت, الندي صوت أعلى عند المرأة. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | сопрано (treble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 女高音 . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cornish | trebyl. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | sopránový hlas, soprán (descant, treble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | sopraan. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | soprano. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | صدای زیر(مو.), صدای بلند (Din, Screech), ششدانگ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | sopraano-osa, sopraano. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | soprano, de soprano. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Sopran (treble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | υψίφωνοσ (tenor). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szoprán (treble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | soprano (descant, treble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 高音 (high-pitched tone), ソフト帽 (felt hat, Soyuz). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たかね (high peak, high price, high-pitched tone), "うお" (constant temperature, great benevolence or blessings, great favor, high temperature, high-pitched tone, obligation), ソプラノ . (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | sopraneagh, soprane, baare-ghooagh. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | opranosay soprano (coloratura, treble). (various references) soprano (descant), sopran (treble). (various references) сопрано (sopranos, treble). (various references) sopran. (various references) soprano. (various references) sopran-, sopran (descant, treble). (various references) เสียงร้องเพลงสูงสุ", นักร้องที่ร้องเสียงสูงสุ". (various references) soprano sesli sanatçı, soprano (treble). (various references) сопрано (canto), дискант (treble). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Italian | 900-Modern | soprano. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "soprano": sopranos. (additional references) | |
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"Soprano" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: saprano, sarano, Sopron, soran, Sorhaindo, Spano, sporan, supprano, suprano. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "soprano" (pronounced suprÄ"nō or supra"nō) |
| 3 | -Ä" n ō | chicano, gitano, Llano, Mano, Serrano, Solano. |
| 3 | -a" n ō | piano. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-n-o-o-p-r-s" | |
-1 letter: aprons, parson, pornos. | |
-2 letters: apron, arson, poons, porno, porns, praos, proas, proso, roans, sapor, snoop, sonar, sopor, spoon, spoor. | |
-3 letters: naos, naps, oars, oops, osar, pans, pars, pons, poon, poor, porn, prao, proa, pros, raps, rasp, roan, snap, soap, soar, soon, sora, sorn, span, spar. | |
-4 letters: ars, asp, nap, noo, nor, nos, oar, ons. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-n-o-o-p-r-s" | |
+1 letter: harpoons, pandoors, patroons, polarons, sopranos. | |
+2 letters: copatrons, corposant, crampoons, monocarps, picaroons, ponderosa, pronators, sopranino, sporozoan. | |
+3 letters: absorption, adsorption, anatropous, anisotropy, apportions, comparison, corposants, harpooners, lampooners, monographs, neurospora, nomographs, operations, paronymous, personator, phonograms, pickaroons, ponderosas, probations, pronations, pronatores, prorations, protonates, protozoans, sonography, sopraninos, sponsorial, sporogonia, sporozoans, stainproof, syncopator, transposon. | |
+4 letters: absorptions, adsorptions, anisotropic, anthropoids, antiprotons, aponeuroses, aponeurosis, comparisons, compensator, conspirator, cornucopias, cotransport, fortepianos, gramophones, homopterans, neurosporas, nonpersonal, nonprograms, operagoings, orphanhoods, parenthoods, paronomasia, perorations, personation, personators, phonographs, pianofortes, pollinators, polyandrous, portamentos, proconsular, prognathous, propionates, prosobranch, prostration, protagonist, protohumans, provisional, pteranodons, radiophones, scolopendra, snapshooter, sonographer, sportswoman, sporulation, syncopators, transposons, trypanosome, womanpowers. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)53 6F 70 72 61 6E 6F |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)... --- .--. .-. .- -. --- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010011 01101111 01110000 01110010 01100001 01101110 01101111 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)S o p r a n o |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0053 006F 0070 0072 0061 006E 006F |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)53818284678081 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Sounds | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
