marcante

Marcante is a term that appears in several Romance-language contexts. It is often treated as an adjective or participle related to the verb “mark” (for example, marcar in Portuguese or marcare in Italian), and its exact sense depends on the language and domain. In Italian, the standard musical instruction is marcato; marcante is comparatively rare and tends to be found in historical texts, dialect usage, or editorial variants where it may convey emphasis or a marking that stands out.

In music notation, when marcante is encountered, it is typically understood as signaling emphasis or a strong, accented attack, similar to marcato, though its usage is not standardized across editions. In other Romance languages, marcante can function as “marking” or “prominent” as an adjective describing a feature, attribute, or note that stands out.

Beyond language and music, marcante may appear as a surname or place name in some regions. However, there is no single, widely recognized definition of marcante in English-language reference works, so interpretation relies on the specific linguistic or cultural context.