English Explanatory Dictionary

harmonica

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A musical wind instrument with a series of holes for the player to blow into, each hole producing a different note.
  2. A musical instrument, consisting of a series of hemispherical glasses which, by touching the edges with the dampened finger, give forth the tones.
  3. A toy instrument of strips of glass or metal hung on two tapes, and struck with hammers.

Pronunciation

/ˌhɑɹˈmɒ.nɪ.kə/ /ˌhɑɹˈmɑ.nɪ.kə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-harmonica.wav

Word forms

harmonica harmonicas

Etymology

From armonica. Coined by American polymath and statesman Benjamin Franklin to refer to his glass harmonica, an instrument that predated the small wind instrument by several decades. Doublet of harmonic; compare Latin harmonicus.

Synonyms

French harp gob iron harmonicon Mississippi sax mouth harp mouth organ tin sandwich

Derived words

glass harmonica harmonica bug harmonicaist harmonicist Pandean harmonica
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on H Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary