veena means 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.
veena is pronounced /ˈviːnə/.
Why “veena” is a great word
A large, ancient Indian string instrument, plucked, with a long, fretted fingerboard connecting two resonating gourds and typically strung with five or seven steel strings. From Hindi वीणा (vīṇā), from Sanskrit वीणा (vīṇā), related to Middle Persian wn' (win, 'veena, lute'). Unlike the sitar, with its buzzing resonance and movable frets for the melodic intricacies of the north, the veena is the foundational voice of the southern Carnatic tradition, its tones pure and its frets fixed. Unlike the European lute, a rounded body cradled against the chest, the veena rests across the lap, its gourds balanced on the knees—it is not held, but inhabited. It is the cool pressure of polished steel beneath the fingertip, the honey-thick drone rising from a gourd pressed to the chest, and the deep, wooden resonance that seems to emanate not from the instrument but from the earth itself. To play it is to enter into a geometry of stillness and sound.
Etymology
Borrowed from Hindi and Sanskrit वीणा (vīṇā), which is related to Middle Persian wn' (win, “veena, lute”).
noun
- 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.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- violin 59% match — A small unfretted stringed instrument with four strings tuned (lowest to highest) G-D-A-E, usually held against the chin and played with a bow. vs veena →
- shehnai 59% match — An ancient reeded woodwind instrument from India with a long slim body and bulbous sound bowl, with or without keys. vs veena →
- viol 58% match — A stringed instrument related to the violin family, but held in the lap between the legs like a cello, usually with C-holes, a flat back, a fretted neck and six strings, played with an underhanded bow hold. vs veena →
- vihuela 56% match — A guitar-like string instrument of 15th- and 16th-century Spain, usually with six courses or sets of strings (twelve strings in total). vs veena →
- vielle 56% match — A medieval stringed instrument similar to a violin. vs veena →
- ravanahatha 55% match — An ancient bowed stringed instrument of India, Sri Lanka, and surrounding areas, possibly an ancestor of the violin. vs veena →
- sarangi 55% match — A bowed string instrument used in the Hindustani classical music of North India. vs veena →
- berde 54% match — A stringed instrument (chordophone) of Bosnian origin, a large guitar-shaped instrument that is played upright, using a plectrum. vs veena →