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Music. in a leisurely manner; slowly.
Music. .
Music. an adagio movement or piece.
Dance.

a sequence of well-controlled, graceful movements performed as a display of skill.
a duet by a man and a woman or mixed trio emphasizing difficult technical feats.
(especially in ballet) a love-duet sequence in a pas de deux.

Historical Examples

Schubert has published the “adagio Religioso,” which will be sent you at Paris.
Ole Bull Sara C. Bull

They skipped not in answer to the adagio movement in the May-day Symphony.
Cruel Barbara Allen David Christie Murray

The adagio is intact, but there are only a few measures of the Minuet.
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume I (of 3) Alexander Wheelock Thayer

Sinking quickly into the slumber which always overtakes him during the adagio.
A Book of Burlesques H. L. Mencken

I must now write an adagio for my quintett without delay; the performers are calling loudly for one, and they are right.
Letters of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy from Italy and Switzerland Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

The first movement and the adagio, above all, are of incomparable beauty.
A Popular History of the Art of Music W. S. B. Mathews

Lassus introduced such musical terms as Allegro and adagio into music and brought chromatic elements into musical composition.
The Century of Columbus James J. Walsh

If I were a musician I would take it as the subject for the adagio in a Wesleyan symphony.
The Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler

adagio and Rondo for harmonica, flute, oboe, viola and violoncello in C minor (617 K.).
Life Of Mozart, Vol. 3 (of 3) Otto Jahn

The incoherence of the Journal suddenly glides into an adagio.
Fantazius Mallare Ben Hecht

adjective, adverb
(to be performed) slowly
noun (pl) -gios
a movement or piece to be performed slowly
(ballet) a slow section of a pas de deux
adv.

c.1746, “slowly, leisurely,” Italian, from ad agio, from ad “to, at” (see ad-) + agio “leisure,” from Vulgar Latin adjacens, present participle of adjacere “to lie at, to lie near” (cf. adjacent). In musical sense of “a slow movement” (n.), first attested 1784.
adagio [(uh-dah-joh, uh-dah-zhee-oh)]

A very slow musical tempo.