waterphone means an acoustic percussion instrument consisting of a resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck, surrounded by rods of different lengths and diameters. Water may be added to the bowl to modify the sound.
Why “waterphone” is a great word
An acoustic percussion instrument whose sound is produced by striking or bowing metal rods attached to a central resonator bowl and modulated by adding water. From water + -phone (from Greek -phōnē, "sound, voice"). Unlike a "hydraulophone," where sound is generated by water itself, or a "hydrophone," a submerged listening device, the waterphone is a played instrument that merely employs water to bend its voice. It is the shiver of a bow drawn across bronze rods, the ghostly warble of vibrations passing through a half-filled bowl, the metallic keening heard through fog—a sound forever caught between metal and liquid, air and immersion, as if the ocean itself had learned to sing through brass and water.
Etymology
From water + -phone.
noun
- An acoustic percussion instrument consisting of a resonator bowl or pan with a cylindrical neck, surrounded by rods of different lengths and diameters. Water may be added to the bowl to modify the sound.“The listing for Loop 2.4.3 had promised that a waterphone would be featured.”
- An instrument for detecting leaks in pipes by their sound, consisting of a rod attached to an earpiece.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.
- hydraulophone 87% match — Any of several musical instruments that employ the movement of water rather than air. vs waterphone →
- pyrophone 80% match — a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by flames of gas in tubes of different length vs waterphone →
- balafon 79% match — A wooden-keyed percussion idiophone of West Africa that is struck with two padded sticks. vs waterphone →
- bullroarer 78% match — A ritual musical instrument and means of communicating over extended distances, consisting of a slat of wood tied to the end of a thong or string, with which the slat is whirled so as to cause an intermittent roaring noise. vs waterphone →
- telharmonium 78% match — An early electric musical instrument for producing music at a distant point or points by means of alternating current. An operator plays a keyboard, and the music is reproduced remotely by a receiving instrument resembling a telephone, but not held to the ear. vs waterphone →
- timbre 77% match — The quality of a sound independent of its pitch and volume. vs waterphone →
- sistrum 77% match — An ancient Egyptian musical instrument, to be shaken, consisting of a metal frame holding percussive metal beads. vs waterphone →
- sourdine 76% match — A muted trumpet. vs waterphone →