falsetto

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian falsetto, from falso (“false”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fɔːlˈsɛt.əʊ/, /fɒlˈsɛt.əʊ/
• (US) enPR: fälsĕʹtō, IPA^(key): /fɔlˈsɛt.oʊ/, /fɔɫˈsɛt.oʊ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: fal‧set‧to

Noun

falsetto (countable and uncountable, plural falsettos)

1. (singing, uncountable) The "false" (singing) voice in any human, usually airy and lacking a purity of vowels; created by using the next highest vocal folds above those used for speech and normal range singing. It is commonly confused with the head voice register.
2. (music, countable) A person who sings in falsetto.

Translations

"false" (singing) voice in any human

• Bulgarian: фалце́т m (falcét)
• Catalan: falset m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 假聲／假声 (zh) (jiǎshēng)

• Czech: falzet m
• Finnish: falsetti (fi)
• French: fausset (fr) m
• German: Falsett (de) n
• Indonesian: falseto (id)
• Irish: cuach f
• Italian: falsetto (it) m
• Japanese: 裏声 (うらごえ, uragoe), 仮声 (ja) (かせい, kasei), ファルセット (farusetto)
• Korean: 가성 (ko) (gaseong)
• Maori: reo whakapakaru, whakapakaru
• Polish: falset (pl) m, fistuła f
• Portuguese: falsete (pt) m
• Russian: фальце́т (ru) m (falʹcét)
• Slovene: falzet (sl) m
• Spanish: falsete (es) m

Verb

falsetto (third-person singular simple present falsettos, present participle falsettoing, simple past and past participle falsettoed)

1. To sing or utter in falsetto.

Anagrams

• floatest

Italian

Etymology

From the diminutive of falso.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /falˈset.to/
• Rhymes: -etto
• Hyphenation: fal‧sét‧to

Noun

falsetto m (plural falsetti)

1. (music) falsetto (voice)

Descendants

• → English: falsetto
• → Portuguese: falsete
• → Spanish: falsete