Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Vigor; vivacity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Spirit, animation; especially, in music, in the expression con brio, spiritedly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Vigour or vivacity.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun quality of being active or spirited or alive and vigorous

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Italian, from Spanish brio or Provençal briu, both of Celtic origin; see gwerə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Italian brio ("finesse, talent"), from Old Provençal briu ("wild"), from Gaulish *brīgos (compare Old Irish bríg ("pith, strength"), Welsh bri ("repute, respect")).

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Examples

  • What do you make of a guy who claims the Italian word 'brio' is no longer used in Italy but only in the English language?

    Epinions Recent Content for Home 2009

  • “Santa Monica cocktail parties” gets the job done, but his usual brio is lacking, much like a worn-out band performing a medley of hit songs from 40 years ago.

    Matthew Yglesias » The Wages of Immigration 2010

  • Paul Desenne, mixed Gallic suavity and Latin American brio for a chameleonic dash through various subdivisions of a nine-beat bar.

    NYT > Home Page 2010

  • It's especially heartening to see 94-year-old Eli Wallach bring the same kind of brio to a small part here as he brought to

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • It's especially heartening to see 94-year-old Eli Wallach bring the same kind of brio to a small part here as he brought to

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • There's a certain chocolate factory in Fremont (we won't name names, but it rhymes with "brio") that gets all the press-it wholly deserves it, but that doesn't mean smaller-scale chocolatiers like Lee Johnson at Fiori Chocolates shouldn't get their moment in the sun.

    Seattle Weekly | Complete Issue 2009

  • There's a certain chocolate factory in Fremont (we won't name names, but it rhymes with "brio") that gets all the press-it wholly deserves it, but that doesn't mean smaller-scale chocolatiers like Lee Johnson at Fiori Chocolates shouldn't get their moment in the sun.

    Seattle Weekly | Complete Issue 2009

  • There's a certain chocolate factory in Fremont (we won't name names, but it rhymes with "brio") that gets all the press-it wholly deserves it, but that doesn't mean smaller-scale chocolatiers like Lee Johnson at Fiori Chocolates shouldn't get their moment in the sun.

    Seattle Weekly | Complete Issue 2009

  • There's a certain chocolate factory in Fremont (we won't name names, but it rhymes with "brio") that gets all the press-it wholly deserves it, but that doesn't mean smaller-scale chocolatiers like Lee Johnson at Fiori Chocolates shouldn't get their moment in the sun.

    Seattle Weekly | Complete Issue 2009

  • But Willis's easygoing, dancing phrasing warmed up the chamber-sized dimensions of the playing, and once the intonation settled, in time for the bewitching Siciliano of the E-major concerto (BWV 1053), the group began to exude more confidence, and the closing Allegro had a happy brio.

    Archive 2009-06-01 Matthew Guerrieri 2009

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