From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcontraltocon‧tral‧to /kənˈtræltəʊ $ -toʊ/ noun (plural contraltos) 1 APM[countable] the lowest female singing voice, or a woman with a voice like this2 [singular] the part of a musical work that is written for a contralto voice
Examples from the Corpus
contralto• Her soprano was very pleasing although in a bigger choir he thought she might have been better employed as a contralto.• Ben never seemed to make up his mind whether I was a contralto or a soprano.• She was a famous contralto, , who had sung with both Brahms and Wolf.• She had a lovely contralto voice.• Wilson is a fiercely independent, 40-year-old singer and songwriter with a creamy, sultry contralto.• The contralto Alfreda Hodgson has died at the age of 51.Origin contralto (1700-1800) Italian contra- “below” (from Latin; → CONTRA-) + alto ( → ALTO) 