dulcimer means A stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).
dulcimer is pronounced /ˈdʌl.sɪ.mɚ/.
Why “dulcimer” is a great word
A stringed musical instrument, typically with a trapezoidal soundbox and strings stretched across it, played by striking the strings with hammers or by plucking them. From Old French doulcemer or doulcemelle, from Latin dulce melos ("sweet song"), itself from dulcis ("sweet") and Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, "melody, song"). Unlike a zither, with its flat body and plucked strings, or a psaltery, its ancient, solely-plucked cousin, the dulcimer is defined by its percussive geometry. It is the bright metallic shimmer of hammers dancing over taut wire, the box humming like a captured bee, the soft, felted thud of a bass note decaying into wood—a sweet song waiting in the planks, reminding us that some melodies only emerge through repeated, patient blows.
Etymology
From Old French doulcemelle, probably from Latin dulce melos (“sweet song”), from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “melody, song”).
noun
- A stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).e.g.“A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid / And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora.”
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- psaltery 87% match — A zither-like musical instrument consisting of a soundboard with multiple strings, played by plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. vs dulcimer →
- zither 87% match — A musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings placed on a horizontal surface, played with a plectrum or fingertips. vs dulcimer →
- lyre 83% match — An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke. vs dulcimer →
- cithara 82% match — An ancient Greek stringed instrument, which could be considered a forerunner of the guitar. vs dulcimer →
- harpsichord 82% match — A stringed musical instrument with a keyboard, the mechanical precusor to the fortepiano, in which each key causes a plectrum to pluck a corresponding tuned string, producing a bright, sharp tone similar to that of a harp. vs dulcimer →
- clarsach 81% match — A small triangular wire-strung harp of Gaelic origin. vs dulcimer →
- veena 79% match — A plucked stringed instrument with five or seven steel strings stretched on a long fretted finger-board over two gourds, used mostly in Carnatic Indian classical music. vs dulcimer →
- barbitos 79% match — An ancient stringed musical instrument from Greece, apparently a type of lute or lyre. vs dulcimer →