intermezzo

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

noun a short movement coming between the major sections of a symphony
noun a short piece of instrumental music composed for performance between acts of a drama or opera
noun a brief show (music or dance etc) inserted between the sections of a longer performance

Borrowed from Italian intermezzo. Doublet of intermede and intermedium

He played "Intermezzo" as a solo violin, and the beautiful melody only added to both Mulberry's and Gladys's happiness. — Daisy Ashford: Her Book, Daisy Ashford
During the musical intermezzo that followed, the lower proscenium box was vacated and in the first balcony one among a crowd of students rose and made his way up the aisle. — Flamsted quarries, Mary E. (Mary Ella) Waller
The first when he left Dresden so suddenly in July 1760, and falling upon Lascy, then turned against Dresden, gained nothing by the whole of that intermezzo, but rather placed his affairs in a condition notably worse, as the fortress Glatz fell in the meantime. — On War, Carl von Clausewitz

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