virtuoso

virtuoso
noun | ver-choo-OH-soh
 
What It Means
 
Virtuoso is used broadly to refer to a person who does something very skillfully, and is often used specifically to refer to a very skillful musician.
 
// He’s a real virtuoso in the kitchen, whipping up gourmet dishes for his family not just on holidays but on regular weeknights.
 
// Although the violin was her first instrument, she eventually proved to be a virtuoso on the harp


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virtuoso
noun
vir·;tu·;o·;so ;v;r-ch;-;;-(;)s;  -(;)z;
pluralvirtuosos or virtuosi ;v;r-ch;-;;-(;)s;  -(;)z;
Synonyms of virtuoso
1
: one who excels in the technique of an art
Hailed far and wide as a virtuoso, perhaps the greatest glass artist of the 20th century …
—Jon Krakauer
especially : a highly skilled musical performer
a piano/violin virtuoso
a jazz virtuoso
But the heart of the program was Beethoven, the Quartet in E Minor, Opus 59, No. 2, "Razoumovsky." This is where the modern string quartet begins, quartets that became the property of virtuosos instead of amateurs …
—Ken Keaton
2
: a person who has exceptional skill, expertise, or talent at some endeavor
… instances in which young computer virtuosos occasionally cross the legal boundaries of remote computer systems.
—Scott Mace
Although hockey has been more team-oriented than any other major sport, through the years there have been virtuosos who packed the houses.
—Stan Fischler
3
: a person interested in the pursuit of knowledge in some specialized field and especially in the arts and sciences
[Samuel] Pepys was a characteristic product of his day, a virtuoso, a man sympathetic to every new trend in science and scholarship.
—William Matthews
4
: a person interested in or having a taste for the fine arts
In the eighteenth century, rich "virtuosos" like Richard Payne Knight and his friend Charles Townley assembled vast collections of everything from Roman sculpture to skewered beetles …
—Walter Kendrick
virtuoso adjective
a virtuoso cellist
virtuoso performances
Canto LXXX … provides a particularly virtuoso example of the poet's ear for dialects and languages.
—Richard Sieburth


Did you know?
English speakers borrowed the Italian noun virtuoso in the 1600s, but the Italian word had a former life as an adjective meaning both "virtuous" and "skilled." The first virtuosos (the English word can be pluralized as either virtuosos or, in the image of its Italian forbear, as virtuosi) were individuals of substantial knowledge and learning ("great wits," to quote one 17th-century clergyman). The word was then transferred to those skilled in the arts and specifically to skilled musicians. In time, English speakers broadened virtuoso to apply to a person adept in any pursuit.

Synonyms
ace
adept
artist
authority
cognoscente
connoisseur
crackerjack
crackajack
dab [chiefly British]
dab hand [chiefly British]
expert
fiend
geek
guru
hand
hotshot
maestro
master
maven
mavin
meister
past master
proficient
scholar
shark
sharp
whiz
wizard
Examples of virtuoso in a Sentence
He's a real virtuoso in the kitchen.
Recent Examples on the Web
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Tabla, a percussion instrument, is one of the essential ingredients of Indian classical music ; and Hussain was widely considered its greatest living virtuoso.
—Anna Kaufman, USA TODAY, 16 Dec. 2024
Their meeting lasts about a minute, and in Johnson’s virtuoso handling it conveys surprise, suspicion, gratitude, and brotherhood.
—Calvin Tomkins, The New Yorker, 9 Dec. 2024
Advertisement That required virtuoso acting versatility.
—Bob Strauss, Los Angeles Times, 3 Dec. 2024
Couple that with 19-year-olds Jessie Murph, Stella Prince and Austin Williams, 17-year-olds Tish Melton and Mason Ramsey and 14-year-olds Maddox Batson and Wyatt Ellis and a whole wave of virtuoso and musically curious young people are making truly significant waves of late in Music City.
—Marcus K. Dowling, The Tennessean, 27 Sep. 2024