The term came to apply both to the structure of individual movements (see Sonata form and History of sonata form) and to the layout of the movements in a multi-movement work. In the transition to the Classical period there were several names given to multimovement works, including divertimento, serenade, and partita, many of which are now regarded effectively as sonatas. The usage of sonata as the standard term for such works began somewhere in the 1770s. Haydn labels his first piano sonata as such in 1771, after which the term divertimento is used sparingly in his output. The term sonata was increasingly applied to either a work for keyboard alone (see piano sonata), or for keyboard and one other instrument, often the violin or cello. It was less and less frequently applied to works with more than two instrumentalists; for example, piano trios were not often labelled sonata for piano, violin, and cello. Initially the most common layout of movements was:

Allegro, which at the time was understood to mean not only a tempo, but also some degree of "working out", or development, of the theme. A middle movement, most frequently a slow movement: an Andante, an Adagio or a Largo; or less frequently a Minuet or Theme and Variations form. A closing movement was generally an Allegro or a Presto, often labeled Finale. The form was often a Rondo or Minuet.However, two-movement layouts also occur, a practice Haydn uses as late as the 1790s.
19 "Leichte"
Piano Sonata No. 21 "Waldstein"
Piano Sonata No. 23 "Appassionata"
Piano Sonata No. 29 "Hammerklavier"
Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, Op. 111
Violin Sonata No. 5 "Spring"
Violin Sonata No. 9 "Kreutzer"
Cello Sonata No. 1 in F major Op. 5
Cello Sonata No. 2 in G minor Op. 5
Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major Op. 69
Johannes Brahms
Cello Sonata No. 1
Cello Sonata No. 2
Clarinet Sonatas No. 1 and No.2
Violin Sonata No. 1
Violin Sonata No. 2
Violin Sonata No. 3
Johannes Brahms, Albert Dietrich, and Robert Schumann
F-A-E Sonata
Frédéric Chopin
Piano Sonata No. 2 in B♭ minor
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor
Paul Dukas
Piano Sonata in E-flat minor (1900)
George Enescu
Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano in D major, Op. 2 (1897)
Sonata No. 2 for violin and piano in F minor, Op. 6 (1899)
Edvard Grieg
Three sonatas for Violin and Piano
Franz Liszt
Sonata after a Reading of Dante (Fantasia Quasi Sonata)
Sonata in B minor
Robert Schumann
Violin Sonata No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105

20th-century and contemporary (c. 1910–present)
Samuel Barber
Cello Sonata Op. 6
Piano Sonata Op. 26 (1949)
Jean Barraqué
Piano Sonata (1950–52)
Béla Bartók
Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
Sonata for Piano (1926)
Sonata for Solo Violin
Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano
Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano
Alban Berg
Sonata for Piano, Op. 1
Leonard Bernstein
Sonata for Clarinet and Piano
Pierre Boulez
Piano Sonata No. 1
Piano Sonata No. 2
Piano Sonata No. 3
Benjamin Britten
Sonata for Cello and Piano, Op. 65
John Cage
Sonata for Unaccompanied Clarinet
Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano (1946–48)
Claude Debussy
Sonata No. 1, for cello and piano (1915)
Sonata No. 2, for flute, viola and harp (1915)
Sonata No. 3, for violin and piano (1916–1917)
George Enescu
Sonata No.