volta

¹ American  

[vohl-tuh, vol-, vawl-tah] / ˈvoʊl tə, ˈvɒl-, ˈvɔl tɑ /

noun

plural

volte, voltas

1. Music. turn; time (used in phrases).

   una volta (“once”);

   prima volta (“first time”).

2. Poetry. a rhetorical turn, especially in a sonnet; a sudden shift in theme or emotion.

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Volta ² American  

[vohl-tuh, vawl-tah, vol-tuh, vohl-] / ˈvoʊl tə, ˈvɔl tɑ, ˈvɒl tə, ˈvoʊl- /

noun

1. Count Alessandro 1745–1827, Italian physicist.

2. a river in W Africa, in Ghana, formed by the confluence of the Black Volta and the White Volta and flowing S into the Bight of Benin. About 250 miles (400 km) long; with branches about 1,240 miles (1,995 km) long.

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Volta ¹ British  

/ ˈvɒltə /

noun

1. a river in W Africa, formed by the confluence of the Black Volta and the White Volta in N central Ghana: flows south to the Bight of Benin: the chief river of Ghana. Length: 480 km (300 miles); (including the Black Volta) 1600 km (1000 miles)

2. an artificial lake in Ghana, extending 408 km (250 miles) upstream from the Volta River Dam on the Volta River: completed in 1966. Area: 8482 sq km (3275 sq miles)

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volta ² British  

/ ˈvɔlta, ˈvɒltə /

noun

1. a quick-moving Italian dance popular during the 16th and 17th centuries

2. a piece of music written for or in the rhythm of this dance, in triple time

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Volta ³ British  

/ ˈvɔlta, ˈvəʊltə /

noun

1. Count Alessandro (alesˈsandro). 1745–1827, Italian physicist after whom the volt is named. He made important contributions to the theory of current electricity and invented the voltaic pile (1800), the electrophorus (1775), and an electroscope

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Volta Scientific  

/ vōl′tə /

1. Italian physicist who in 1800 invented the voltaic pile, which was the first source of continuous electric current. The volt unit of electromotive force is named for him.

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Etymology

Origin of volta

1635–45; < Italian: a turn; volt ²

Example Sentences

Here, the tension was a child’s divided life due to a parent’s divorce, and the volta begins with, “But let me say ...” which prefaces the final beautiful five lines.

From New York Times • May 5, 2022

Minot still has a poet’s instinct for the surprising volta, the striking image, the bracing final line.

From New York Times • Sep. 4, 2020

It’s also true that, in order to portray the kinds of psychic shifts required by the Petrarchan volta, Lock would have had to allow herself the kind of invention that was forbidden to women.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 5, 2019

“Believing,” with its implication of subsequent disbelief, works like a volta, a sudden turn into the impossible.

From Slate • Jan. 7, 2016

Qualche volta per la soddisfazione di una terza persona che era presente, questo Sacerdote gli diceva all' orecchio il soggetto sopra il quale voleva schiarimento.

From Story of My Life, volumes 1-3 by Hare, Augustus J. C.