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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

forte.

A strength or talent; a strong point.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈfɔːteɪ/Received-Pronunciation/fɔːˈteɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfɔːti/Received-Pronunciation/fɔːt/Received-Pronunciation
  1. A strength or talent; a strong point.

    He writes respectably, but poetry is not his forte.
  2. The strong part of a sword blade, close to the hilt.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed 1640–50; earlier fort < Middle French; disyllabic pronunciation by association with Italian forte, from Latin fortis (“strong”). Doublet of fort and fortis.

adv/ˈfɔːteɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfoɹteɪ/General-American/ˈfoːɹteɪ//ˈfoəteɪ/
  1. Loudly, as a dynamic in a piece of music.

    The musicians played the passage forte.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Italian forte (“strong”).

adj/ˈfɔːteɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfoɹteɪ/General-American/ˈfoːɹteɪ//ˈfoəteɪ/
  1. Loud.

    This passage is forte, then there's a diminuendo to mezzo piano.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Italian forte (“strong”).

noun/ˈfɔːteɪ/Received-Pronunciation/ˈfoɹteɪ/General-American/ˈfoːɹteɪ//ˈfoəteɪ/
  1. A passage in music to be played loudly; a loud section of music.

    This forte marks the climax of the second movement.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Italian forte (“strong”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.