The name of which musical instrument means "loud" and "soft" in Italian?

It was an improvement over the harpsichord, which could not vary the volume very much. So the fortepiano gave the player much more opportunity for expression.

Player #53553731, in this case forte means loud not strong. piano which is a shortened form of pianissimo means soft. ergo fortepiano or pianoforte

Strange: I’ve always heard it referred to as the pianoforte. Dictionary calls fortepiano a variant of pianoforte. Hope no one missed this because of choice of word.