Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A large wooden percussion instrument with resonators, resembling a xylophone.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An African musical instrument formed of a number of strips of wood of various sizes yielding different notes when struck by a hammer. The sound is often reinforced by resonators formed from calabashes placed underneath.
- n. In the Kongo region and Angola, a name of a musical instrument with iron keys; the sansa.
Wiktionary
- n. A musical instrument similar to a xylophone but clearer in pitch.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A musical istrument of percussion, consisting of bars yielding musical tones when struck.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a percussion instrument with wooden bars tuned to produce a chromatic scale and with resonators; played with small mallets
Etymologies
- From Portuguese, via a Bantu source, perhaps Kimbundu marimba ("xylophone"). (Wiktionary)
- Portuguese, of Bantu origin; akin to Kimbundu ma-rimba : ma-, pl. n. pref. + rimba, xylophone, hand piano. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“From "Bach on Wood" (a marimba, that is) and Vivaldi on the Japanese Koto, to Schubert on a wood-cutting saw and Wagner on power tools, dozens of classical composers have been subjected to strange arrangements.”
“Czech, as they call it in show business, he studied at the top with his father and Secor after he entered the National Conservatory, where, despite not having completed the race, gained solid knowledge that enabled him to replace his parent from the day of his death in 1968, in which it owned and ran marimba, which is why he saw it clear to interrupt their studies because it required the commitment of its permanent presence in the set.”
“And attentive music fans who know that much has been made about the White Stripes 'inclusion of a marimba song on their new album, "Get Behind Me Satan," ought to consider that a "marimba" search on the Global Sounds site delivers seven pages of results.”
“Some sites keep mentioning a toy piano/triangle sound on one of their songs as opposed to the marimba which is also on stage.”
“We will have the National Marimba Ensemble from Guatemala, where the marimba is the national instrument by law.”
“But the marimba is a luscious big round-sounding instrument, "he said.”
“There were a large number of elements to our work, but it seems the real crowd pleasers were the 'watering hole', the 'marimba' and the 'newspaper', "said Gerd”
“How can you dislike a town whose main plaza is known as Marimba Park where free marimba concerts are held every weekend while locals sit around eating ice cream or drinking beer and enjoying the pleasant cool tropical evenings?”
“Amateur band performs Super Mario theme on marimba - Boing Boing”
“The multi-course meal was served while an amazing marimba orchestra played.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘marimba’.
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MUSIC - ALL TERMS
With focus on non-classical styles, but not excluding terms of the latter.
banjo, accompaniment, acoustic bass, bass guitar, bass clef, ground, brass, cornet, Mute, alto saxophone, baritone saxophone, arrangement and 866 more...
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kat's words
ecumenical, cacophony, clatter, marimba, bamboo, saffron, slice, mercurial, pomegranate, cranky, slipshod, scritch and 511 more...
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The braggadocio recipe
A selection of English* words ending with a vowel (except "y", "ea", ie", "ee", "oo", "ea", "ou") that is REALLY pronounced.
My favorite English words, by the way.
The good twin of The ...braggadocio, recipe, encyclopedia, solo, gnu, flu, maybe, apocope, mini, arrhythmia, folio, stereo and 197 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, M
metamerism, malady, margin, marauder, maverick, mercury, mirth, mandible, macerate, meteor, manumission, mica and 292 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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On The Road
Words gathered while reading On The Road by Jack Kerouac.
jailkid, lovething, worklife, longbody, benny, lout, dingledody, intellectualness, huaraches, twink, pisscall, buddhistic and 109 more...
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Another day, a whole nother list
rump, spot on, flank, outflank, rank, bedeck, leafhopper, apocope, academic, set-to, point of no return, cloy and 210 more...
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Percussion
Percussion instruments, excluding stringed ones such as piano, with drums, gongs, and bells tagged. Only mononyms are listed, so hi-hat and tom-tom are out. A gamelan is an assemblage of percussion...
drum, gong, bell, chime, cymbal, triangle, castanet, xylophone, glockenspiel, maraca, marimba, tambourine and 78 more...
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the martian chron
valise, rime, Lazarus, fount, sprocket, okapi, agate, prow, flange, centrifugal pump, russet, bellows and 69 more...
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quiz time
Answers to the questions on this list are related (broadly speaking). Can you figure out the answers, and the relationship among them?
mamba, gumbo, limbo, namby-pamby, bomb bus, grampas, marimba, colombo, columbo, rimbaud, las ramblas, salammbô
Tweets
Looking for tweets for marimba.
Comments
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