Standard Lemma guide

ostinato

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ɒstɪˈnɑtoʊ/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AA2 S T AH0 N AA1 T OW2 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A piece of melody, a chord progression, or a bass figure that is repeated over and over as a musical accompaniment.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a musical phrase repeated over and over during a composition

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: phrase, musical phrase

Narrower terms: ground bass, riff

History

Etymology

From Italian ostinato (“stubborn”). Doublet of obstinate.

Across languages

Translations

12 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: ostinato — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Chinese Mandarin: 固定音型 (gùdìngyīnxíng) — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Chinese Mandarin: 頑固音型 /顽固音型 (wángùyīnxíng) — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Esperanto: ostinato — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Estonian: ostinato — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Finnish: ostinato — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • German: Ostinato — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Macedonian: остина́то (ostináto) — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Russian: остина́то (ostináto) — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Serbo-Croatian: остина̑то — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Serbo-Croatian: ostinȃto — music: figure that is repeated over and over
  • Spanish: ostinato — music: figure that is repeated over and over