Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small flutelike instrument with a cylindrical mouthpiece, four finger holes, and two thumbholes.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A musical instrument of the flute or whistle class, in which the tone is produced by a stream of air striking against a sharp edge. It consists of a mouthpiece, usually a bulb in which the tone is produced, and a tube with six finger-holes. Its compass is a little more than two octaves upward from the G next above middle C. It is not now used in the orchestra. It is the representative of the ancient and medieval flute, its immediate precursor being the recorder. It is often called a flûte-à-bec, in distinction from the modern German or transverse flute. The penny whistle is a cheap form of it.
  • noun In organ-building, a stop, usually of 2-feet tone, giving high fluty tones.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) A small wooden pipe, having six or more holes, and a mouthpiece inserted at one end. It produces a shrill sound, softer than of the piccolo flute, and is said to have superseded the old recorder.
  • noun (Mus.) the naturel harmonics or overtones of stringed instruments.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music A type of small flute.
  • noun A type of kidney bean, common in France.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a French bean variety with light-colored seeds; usually dried
  • noun a small fipple flute with four finger holes and two thumb holes

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French, diminutive of Old French flajol, flute, from Vulgar Latin *flābeolum, possibly alteration of Latin flābellum, diminutive of flābrum, gust of wind, from flāre, to blow; see bhlē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From French flageolet.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word flageolet.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • A dry bean, not in this case a French word for the Irish pennywhistle.

    April 26, 2010

  • Beans, beans. Or a musical flute.

    The more you eat, the more you toot?

    July 6, 2015

  • See also larigot.

    June 9, 2016