ca·stra·to  (k ă-strä t ō, k ə-)
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n. pl. ca·stra·ti (-t ē) or ca·stra·tos A male singer castrated before puberty so as to retain a soprano or alto voice.
[Italian, from Latin castrātus, past participle of castrāre, to castrate; see CASTRATE.] |
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
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The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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