Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small, compact upright piano.
- n. A small, compact upright electronic organ.
- n. A small harpsichord with a single keyboard.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A small wood or place where briers and thorns grow; a spinney.
- n. A musical instrument essentially similar to the harpsichord, but of smaller size and much lighter tone. Also called virginal and couched harp.
Wiktionary
- n. music A short, compact harpsichord or piano.
- n. obsolete A spinney.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Mus.) A keyed instrument of music resembling a harpsichord, but smaller, with one string of brass or steel wire to each note, sounded by means of leather or quill plectrums or jacks. It was formerly much used.
- n. obsolete A spinny.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a small and compactly built upright piano
- n. early model harpsichord with only one string per note
Etymologies
- Latin spinetum. (Wiktionary)
- Obsolete French espinette, from Italian spinetta, perhaps diminutive of spīna, thorn (presumably so called because the strings of the original instrument were plucked with quills); see spinel. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“By some means, and with friendly assistance (perhaps his mother's), he succeeded in smuggling into the garret a spinet, which is a kind of piano.”
“And to the mention of a Clementi piano, that short, gentle, sad, old, little sort of piano people will insist upon calling a spinet, in her flat.”
“In addition to the B3, there are a number of smaller Hammond instruments, known as the spinet series (M3, M100, L100, T100).”
“As a child, when my father played piano, I was small enough to hide myself inside the case at the base of my family's spinet.”
“Each floral scent was clear, as distinct as the notes Connie played on her old-fashioned spinet.”
“After supper, she played the spinet for a time, filling the house with the rousing sound of "Yankee Doodle.”
“I don't think I've ever heard that played on a spinet," he told her.”
“After dinner, Swift insisted Betsy Patrick play a few selections on her spinet.”
“I am reminded of the movie, Rachel and the Stranger, where the widower laments that his wife fought so hard to make their isolated cabin a home and bring beauty to it by insisting on planting flowers in the front yard, bringing her spinet to the West and playing it every evening, buying a metronome for her playing, educating their son in the home and insisting that he show good manners.”
Women and Their Dedication to Beauty in 19th Century America
“When I was a Baptist, fourteen-years-old or so, I dreamed of having a van carrying a Hammond spinet I could haul out at state parks along the road and sing and play, maybe even preach, evangelizing to the wayward I might find in my journeys.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spinet’.
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
veal, valve, used, yak, wax, wan, teak, vat, vas, strip, use, strap and 4515 more...
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Play it again sam
public list. words related to the word 'piano'
pianist, piano fangblenny, pianoforte, baby grand, keys, pedal, a percussion with..., piano boxer, grand piano, chordophone, harpsichord, felt hammers and 33 more...
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Words Covered in Faery Dust (S)
words that evoke magic, mystery, mayhem, magnificence or anything else that glimmers in the grass
sabian symbols, saffron, sagacious, sage, salamander, sally lunn, salmon, salsify, salt water taffy, samhain, sand dollar, sandalwood and 270 more...
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...another list...
I've no idea where I got this page full of words, but whatever it is, I want to find it again. May have duplicate words from other lists.
bicameral, aphelion, dirigible, parhelion, flocculus, vernier, corticate, oxalis, pandanus, calabash, plumbago, jonquil and 217 more...
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roseandivy's list
mooncalf, wonted, gibbet, artless, noontide, blithe, glitterati, vorpal, soporific, moxie, pilfer, betwixt and between and 263 more...
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Stellar Six-Letter Words
I've been meaning to make this list for at least a year, to go with Really Cool Two-Letter Words, Three-Letter Words, Four-Letter Words, Slightly Less Cool Four-Letter Words, and Five-Letter Words....
degust, tattoo, quahog, anoxia, acetic, rugose, bathos, umlaut, mohawk, python, harbor, panzer and 78 more...
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tulliaferox's Words
slithy, mendacious, fantabulous, prolix, vermilion, puce, brilliant, sybarite, audacious, bumptious, curtail, climes and 20 more...
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ynaffit's Words
sedulous, vituperative, pullulating, erstwhile, imbroglio, asperity, cynosure, adumbrate, prosopopoeia, peerless, calumny, ague and 272 more...
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meory's Words
celesta, glockenspiel, tourmaline, apotheosis, persnickety, magic, enchantment, legend, myth, wonder, whimsical, spinet and 15 more...
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the musician
Started off as names of musical pieces and miscellaneous music terms, now broadened to dance and theatre. (May recategorize this to finer details.)
oratorio, berceuse, barcarolle, appoggiatura, acciaccatura, polonaise, mazurka, overture, canto, arabesque, sinfonia, sonata and 44 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spinet.
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