An arpeggio, also known as a 'broken chord', is a sequence of notes which, if played simultaneously, would make up a chord. The notes are heard one after another from the bottom upward, or sometimes from the top downward. It is usually shown by a wavy line printed vertically between the notes to be played as an arpeggio. The word comes from the Italian arpeggiare, meaning "to play on a harp." Plural: arpeggi.

An arpeggiator is a hardware device or software that will automatically create an arpeggio.