Did you know?
Concerts, music festivals, television series, professional wrestling matches—these are quite the undertakings. Luckily, there’s a word for the impressive individuals responsible for organizing and overseeing such productions: impresario. In the 1700s, English borrowed impresario directly from Italian, whose noun impresa means “undertaking.” (A close relative is the English word emprise, “an adventurous, daring, or chivalric enterprise,” which, like impresario, traces back to the Latin verb prehendere, meaning “to seize.”) At first English speakers used impresario as the Italians did, to refer to opera company managers, though today it is used much more broadly. It should be noted that, despite their apparent similarities, impress and impresario are not related. Impress is a descendant of the Latin verb pressare, a form of the word premere, meaning “to press.”
Examples of impresario in a Sentence
Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2025
Prosecutors paint a darker portrait of the music impresario who became as well-known for his rap career as for his A-list parties and many brands, from Ciroc to Sean John.
—Danielle Bacher, People.com, 9 May 2025
During a recent sit-down with the On That Note podcast hosted by Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman, Gill shared an unforgettable story about the musical impresario.
—Amber Corrine, VIBE.com, 4 Apr. 2025
Following historian and archivist Phoebe Blair in the present day, as Armitage Gallier hires her to research rumors about a relationship between his relative — entertainment impresario and business magnate Thomas Gallier — and notorious vaudeville star, Evelyn Cross.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 19 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for impresario
Cite this Entry
“Impresario.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/impresario. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
impresario
noun
Share