coloratura [It.]

(1) Elaborate ornamentation or embellishment, including running passages and trills, whether written or improvised, and common in 18th- and 19th-century singing, e.g., that occurring in the arias for the Queen of Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. (2) A soprano with a high range who sings in the style of (1). (3) *Coloration (2).