sonata

See also: Sonata, sonată, sónata, and sonáta

English

Etymology

From Italian sonata, from the feminine past participle of sonare (modern suonare), from Latin sonāre (“to make sound”). Doublet of sounded.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈnɑːtə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɑːtə

• IPA^(key): (obsolete) /soʊˈneɪtə/

Noun

sonata (plural sonatas)

1. (music) A musical composition for one or a few instruments, one of which is frequently a piano, in three or four movements that vary in key and tempo.

Hyponyms

• arpeggione sonata
• bassoon sonata
• cello sonata
• clarinet sonata
• flute sonata
• horn sonata
• keyboard sonata
• oboe sonata
• organ sonata
• piano sonata
• recorder sonata
• string sonata
• viola sonata
• violin sonata

Derived terms

• sonata-allegro form
• sonata form
• sonatalike
• trio sonata

Related terms

• sonatina

Translations

a musical composition for one or a few instruments

• Afrikaans: sonate (af)
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奏鳴曲 / 奏鸣曲 (zh) (zòumíngqǔ)

• Czech: sonáta (cs) f
• Danish: sonate c
• Dutch: sonate (nl) f
• Esperanto: sonato
• Estonian: sonaat
• Finnish: sonaatti (fi)
• French: sonate (fr) f
• German: Sonate (de) f
• Hawaiian: puolo hui puhi ʻohe
• Hindi: सोनाटा (sonāṭā)
• Hungarian: szonáta (hu)
• Icelandic: sónata f
• Indonesian: sonata (id)
• Irish: sonáid f
• Italian: sonata (it) f
• Japanese: ソナタ (ja) (sonata), 奏鳴曲 (そうめいきょく, sōmeikyoku)
• Korean: 소나타 (ko) (sonata)
• Macedonian: сона́та f (sonáta)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: sonate m

  Nynorsk: sonate m

• Persian: سونات (fa) (sonât)
• Polish: sonata (pl) f
• Portuguese: sonata (pt) f
• Romanian: sonată (ro) f
• Russian: сона́та (ru) f (sonáta)
• Spanish: sonata (es) f
• Swedish: sonat (sv) c
• Tagalog: sonata
• Turkish: sonat (tr)
• Tuvan: соната (sonata)
• Yakut: соната (sonata)

See also

• cantata

Anagrams

• Aostan

Catalan

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian sonata. First attested in 1839.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central) [suˈna.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [soˈna.tə]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia, Northwestern) [soˈna.ta]

Noun

sonata f (plural sonates)

1. sonata

Further reading

• “sonata”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “sonata” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “sonata”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Esperanto

Adjective

sonata (accusative singular sonatan, plural sonataj, accusative plural sonatajn)

1. singular present passive participle of soni

Ido

Adjective

sonata

1. present passive participle of sonar

Italian

Alternative forms

• suonata

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /soˈna.ta/
• Rhymes: -ata
• Hyphenation: so‧nà‧ta

Etymology 1

Noun

sonata f (plural sonate)

1. sonata

Descendants

• → Catalan: sonata
• → English: sonata
• → French: sonate
• → Galician: sonata
• → German: Sonate
• → Japanese: ソナタ (sonata)
• → Korean: 소나타 (sonata)
• → Polish: sonata
• → Portuguese: sonata
• → Russian: сона́та (sonáta)
  • → Kazakh: соната (sonata)
• → Spanish: sonata

Etymology 2

Participle

sonata f sg

1. feminine singular of sonato

Further reading

• sonata in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

Anagrams

• ansato, sanato

Japanese

Romanization

sonata

1. Rōmaji transcription of そなた
2. Rōmaji transcription of ソナタ

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian sonata, from the feminine past participle of sonare (modern suonare), from Latin sonāre (“to make sound”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɔˈna.ta/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ata
• Syllabification: so‧na‧ta

Noun

sonata f

1. (music) sonata

Declension

Declension of sonata

	singular	plural
nominative	sonata	sonaty
genitive	sonaty	sonat
dative	sonacie	sonatom
accusative	sonatę	sonaty
instrumental	sonatą	sonatami
locative	sonacie	sonatach
vocative	sonato	sonaty

Derived terms

adjective

• sonatowy

Further reading

• “sonata”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[1] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “sonata”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[2] (in Polish)

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian sonata.

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /soˈna.tɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /soˈna.tɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /soˈna.ta/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /suˈna.tɐ/

• Rhymes: -atɐ
• Hyphenation: so‧na‧ta

Noun

sonata f (plural sonatas)

1. (music) sonata (a musical composition for one or a few instruments)

Further reading

• “sonata”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “sonata”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian sonata.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /soˈnata/ [soˈna.t̪a]
• Rhymes: -ata
• Syllabification: so‧na‧ta

Noun

sonata f (plural sonatas)

1. sonata

Further reading

• “sonata”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025