Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A low-pitched woodwind instrument with a double reed, having a long wooden body attached to a U-shaped lateral tube that leads to the mouthpiece. The range of this instrument is typically two octaves lower than that of the oboe.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A musical instrument of the oboe class, having a double reed, a long, curved metallic mouthpiece, and a doubled wooden tube or body. Its compass is about three octaves rising from
. below the bass staff. Its diameter at the bottom is about 2 inches, and for convenience of carriage it is divided into two or more parts, whence its Italian name fagotto, a bundle. It serves for the bass among wood wind-instruments, as hautboys, flutes, etc. - n. A reed-pipe stop in an organ, having a quality of tone resembling that of the bassoon.
Wiktionary
- n. A musical instrument in the woodwind family, having a double reed and, playing in the tenor and bass ranges.
- v. To play the bassoon.
- v. To make a bassoon-like sound.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mus.) A wind instrument of the double reed kind, furnished with holes, which are stopped by the fingers, and by keys, as in flutes. It forms the natural bass to the oboe, clarinet, etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a double-reed instrument; the tenor of the oboe family
Etymologies
- From French basson, from Italian bassone, from basso ("bass") + augmentative suffix -one. (Wiktionary)
- French basson, from Italian bassone, augmentative of basso, bass; see basso. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“During the rehearsal he suddenly stopped the orchestra and cried out: "F. sharp, F. sharp in the second bassoon is wrong", only to be answered by the first basson player, "Beg pardon, Sir, the second bassoon is absent today.”
“The Germans called this sound schwachsinnige Musik, but the vice-admiral's name for it-"bassoon"-was the one that stuck.”
“Someone should also gently mention to Tilson-Thomas that the crowd that shows up for Takemitsu probably doesn't need the grownup version of the 'This instrument is called the bassoon! lecture.”
“The bassoon is the legitimate bass to the oboe and to the wood wind in general.”
“The mistake about the bassoon is a small one, and is, I suppose, borrowed from Coleridge, but it is characteristic.”
“Now it happened that a bassoon was the instrument nearest the box in which Aurora sat, and it was natural therefore that the bassoon attracted more of”
“The oboe is one of two commonly found double reed woodwinds (the bassoon is the other), a family of musical instruments that produces sound by channeling vibrations made by blowing on two thin pieces of material.”
“The bassoon was my instrument in high school, and as a child I heard the voice of Harold Ramis in a crowded lecture hall.”
“Next came a double file of priests in their surplices, with a missal in one hand and a lighted wax taper in the other, chanting the funeral dirge at intervals -- now pausing, and then again taking up the mournful burden of their lamentation, accompanied by others, who played upon a rude kind of bassoon, with a dismal and wailing sound.”
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 3 France and the Netherlands, Part 1
“He winked, as he spoke, at two of the company, who were known officially as the "bassoon" and the”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bassoon’.
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Very Silly Words
A list of very silly sounding words, as well as words that are fun to say
badot, gardyloo, dingbat, gaffer, kine, haberdashery, forsooth, whey-faced, hoddypeak, brouhaha, widdershins, decemnovenarianize and 115 more...
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-oons (once of more than one syllable)
Originally this list was to contain multisyllabic words that end in "oon," but as you can see from the comments, all hell broke loose.
doubloon, poltroon, spittoon, patroon, dragoon, bassoon, platoon, typhoon, rangoon, maroon, pontoon, monsoon and 96 more...
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harmony of the spheres
tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic, leading tone, progression, sonata, concerto, allegro and 247 more...
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word set 2
preemptively, crocodilian, gyrator, wallowing, sodbusters, electrification, manganese, swabbing, plummeted, silhouetting, careening, frothy and 101 more...
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imogen's Words
coagitate, cloche, harum-scarum, foxglove, cryptolect, cant, roux, angora, duff, ulysse, schadenfreude, pepperpot and 315 more...
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Favorite Tangible Object Words
Trimming the "Chained Bear's Favorites" list so I don't crash people's computers... like my own...
castanets, whaup, budgie, wallabies, ring-wraith, hobbit, chinchilla, guano, merganser, phalarope, phalarope, curlew and 138 more...
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theastic's Words
cellar, stalemate, wrought, opal, tyrant, squelch, squab, linen, tartan, paisley, scope, siren and 395 more...
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NeoVolt's Words
schadenfreude, serendipity, idiosyncrasy, loess, caducous, vagary, schematic, steeple, licentious, tangential, verisimilitude, vernacular and 385 more...
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lemongrass's Words
ineffable, diode, abraxas, neologism, algorithm, schadenfreude, heresiology, vague, cathartic, quixotic, apocrypha?, quintessence and 103 more...
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GRE List
anthem, ablution, apocrypha, augur, cardinal, cathedral, chant, chapel, cloister, conformist, cult, devout and 145 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, B
bloviate, bejesus, brouhaha, behoove, bodacious, bamboozle, banshee, bub, bolus, blob, bubbly, bleb and 414 more...
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Words of Whimsy & Grace
abecedary, addendum, ampersand, anachronism, avuncular, balderdash, barnacle, befuddle, behemoth, bejeebers, blabbermouth, blatherskite and 465 more...
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Pull out the stops
Organ stops, that is.
diapason, clarabella, dulciana, bourdon, reed stop, flue stop, violoncello, suabe flute, waldflute, rackett, pyramidon, querflöte and 106 more...
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MacBean's Words
verisimilitude, antediluvian, schadenfreude, eviscerate, exsanguinate, onomatopoeia, aesthetic, apocryphal, aubergine, byronic, brouhaha, bordello and 523 more...
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clef
caprice, variation, violin, harpsichord, adagio, allegro, scherzo, opera, tenor, soprano, alto, mezzo and 62 more...
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dschimpf's Words
circuitous, interrobang, arabesque, allegory, terpsichorean, lackadaisical, belie, thaumaturgy, octothorpe, phosphoric, valence, molarity and 31 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bassoon.
chained_bear For slang (who knew bassoon needed a slang term?) see purser's pump. Sep 5, 2008