Meaning & use

arco

adverb·Advanced

In music, an instruction to play a string instrument with the bow, rather than by plucking.

See it in a sentence

The conductor signaled arco after several measures of pizzicato from the cellos.

The score marks arco clearly so the violinists know to switch back to the bow.

A note on using this word

Arco is Italian for bow and is the standard notation used to cancel a previous pizzicato instruction.

Words with a similar meaning

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Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Words with an opposite meaning

pizzicato

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