cello

«cello» in Mova's school dictionary: a large musical instrument with four strings, played with… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a cello, cellos)

meaning for a pupil

A cello is a large musical instrument with four strings, played with a bow while sitting down with the cello held between the knees. tree →

sense in the lessons

In music lessons the cello belongs to the string family with the violin, viola and double bass; it is bigger than a violin and plays lower, warm notes. Children can learn on smaller cellos. In orchestras the cellos sit near the front. The player is a cellist.

examples

• She plays the cello in the school orchestra. tree →
• The cello has a deep, warm sound. tree →
• A cello is bigger than a violin but smaller than a double bass. tree →
• My brother practises the cello every evening. tree →
• You play the cello sitting down. tree →
• The cellist tuned all four strings. tree →

note

Pronounced «CHEL-oh» (the c sounds like ch, from Italian). Plural: cellos. Short for «violoncello». Player: cellist (also «ch» sound). Not related to «cell» or «sellotape».

In the corpora

• In the string family bigger instruments play lower: from highest to lowest they are violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «cello» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.