Singer's wavering tone

• Current cup holder to follow victory: change pitch with this?
• Wavy tonal quality overdone by a lot of "American Idol" hopefuls
• Oscillatory effect
• Tremolo's kin
• Quavering musical effect

Wikipedia Word definitions in Wikipedia
Vibrato ( Italian , from past participle of "vibrare", to vibrate) is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch . It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two ...

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Word definitions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
noun EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS ▪ Characteristically White's opulent bass comes with a pronounced vibrato which tends to get exaggerated on disc. ▪ He whistles with a beautiful, steady vibrato . ▪ In their accompaniments, the strings could have contributed greater ...

Wiktionary Word definitions in Wiktionary
n. (context music English) The musical effect or technique where the pitch or frequency of a note or sound is quickly and repeatedly raised and lowered over a small distance for the duration of that note or sound.

WordNet Word definitions in WordNet
n. (music) a pulsating effect in an instrumental or vocal tone produced by slight and rapid variations in pitch

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1861 (adv.), 1870 (n.), "tremulous effect in music," from Italian vibrato , from Latin vibratus , past participle of vibrare "to vibrate" (see vibrate ).\n\nStrictly, the vibrato is distinct from the tremolo , in that the latter involves a perceptible variation ...