Log in or Sign up
  1. plectrum love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A small thin piece of metal, plastic, bone, or similar material, used to pluck the strings of certain instruments, such as the guitar or lute.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A small instrument of ivory, horn, or metal used for plucking or twanging the strings of a lyre, cithara, or other similar instrument.
  2. n. Something like or likened to a plectrum. In anatomy: The stylohyal bone, or styloid process of the temporal bone. The uvula. The tongue. Encyc. Dict.

Wiktionary

  1. n. anatomy, zoology An anatomical part resembling a plectrum in shape.
  2. n. music A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A small instrument of ivory, wood, metal, or quill, used in playing upon the lyre and other stringed instruments.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a small thin device (of metal or plastic or ivory) used to pluck a stringed instrument

Etymologies

  1. From Latin plēctrum, from Ancient Greek πλήκτρον (pléktron) “anything to strike with, an instrument for striking the lyre, a spear point”, from πλήσσειν (pléssein) “to strike, to smite, to sting”. (Wiktionary)
  2. Latin plēctrum, from Greek plēktron, from plēssein, plēg-, to strike. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “Imagine your plectrum is a "ping-pong ball" (drom the first) and it just goes up and down - without changing speed!”

    All Updates @ Ultimate-Guitar.Com

  • “Another interesting feature on offer is a plectrum, which is an extra input device besides the alphanumeric keypad and pen stylus.”

    The Economic Times

  • “- Remember that triangular thing called a plectrum that's supposed to be one of a user's choices for ways of input on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic?”

    Megite Technology News: What's Happening Right Now

  • “Remember that triangular thing called a plectrum that's supposed to be one of a user's choices for ways of input on the”

    Unwired View

  • “Tlie plior - niinx, or large lyre, dedicated to Apollo, and plaj-ed upon with an ivory instrument, called plectrum, seems, from certain very intricate and minute parts always recurring in its repre - sentations, to have been a very complicated structure.”

    Internet Archive: Costume of the ancients

  • “Actually, this layout of chord buttons and 'plectrum' bar would also be a cool format for a midi controller - plugged into a laptop, of course...”

    eBay of the Day: Hohner Guitaret

  • “The strings were struck with a kind of plectrum, held in the right hand, and were touched with the left hand immediately afterwards to stop the vibration, just as the dampers in the pianoforte fall on the string the moment the key is released.”

    Critical and Historical Essays Lectures delivered at Columbia University

  • “The biwa is played with a kind of plectrum, called bachi, usually made of horn.”

    Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things

  • “Hutchison's between-song banter was often hilarious and he showed no shortage of the fabled Scottish charm; he even exuded silliness as he discussed a "plectrum" (pick) that someone had given him.”

    owl and bear

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

synonyms (1)

Words with the same meaning

  1. pick

same context (21)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. ukulele
  2. claw hammer
  3. scribit
  4. layersof
  1. vellum-bound
  2. lyrist
  3. mandolin
  4. Dobro
  1. didicit
  2. targa
  3. vidi
  4. crossness
  1. woogie
  2. long-coveted
  3. redemptor
  4. rockband
  1. touchiness
  2. sacratum
  3. 139th
  4. racemis
  1. twangy

reverse dictionary (28)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. guitar pick
  2. plectra
  3. plectron
  4. fescue
  5. cither
  1. cittern
  2. pangolo
  3. orpharion
  4. plectre
  5. zither
  1. asor
  2. calascione
  3. psaltery
  4. pick
  5. shamisen
  1. sarod
  2. finger pick
  3. flat pick
  4. zithern
  5. plucked
  1. samisen
  2. pluck
  3. quill
  4. mandolin
  5. citharistic
  1. cithern
  2. plectrophanes
  3. plectrum

tags (1)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. who knew

Log in or sign up to add your own tag.

Wordmap

(beta)

Word visualization

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘plectrum’.

More lists containing ‘plectrum’

Comments

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

  • jaime_d from Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers Jul 19, 2009

Tweets

Looking for tweets for plectrum.

‘plectrum’ has been looked up 1923 times, loved by 1 person, added to 23 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 14.