Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An electronic instrument played by moving the hands near its two antennas, often used for high tremolo effects.
Wiktionary
- n. An electronic musical instrument that generates sound of varying pitch and volume depending on the proximity of the musician’s hands to two antennae mounted on the instrument.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an electronic musical instrument; melodies can be played by moving the right hand between two rods that serve as antennas to control pitch; the left hand controls phrasing
Etymologies
- After Leo Theremin (1896-1993), Russian engineer and inventor. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The theremin is also probably the only musical instrument designed by a man who also designed bugging equipment for the Soviet security system.”
A Laser Harp for the Elite Masses? - Bits Blog - NYTimes.com
“A theremin is a musical instrument ... a sort of electrical coil which gives off a humming sound.”
“I said I was embarrassed not to know; someone had assured me that a theremin was a kind of "Eastern" religion, and the "cracking into a thousand pieces" was the consequence of being peered at by a waiflike holy man enveloped in a white shroud.”
“The theremin is a very difficult instrument to master.”
“Accordingly a theremin is a direct lesson in the interconnection of you, the environment, and others in a way that I do not see as straightforwardly obvious for other instruments.”
“In 1919, he invented an electronic device known as the theremin, which was a unique musical instrument that could be played without physical contact.”
“The dynamic range of the theremin, which is controlled by the left hand volume loop, is full and rich.”
“The theremin is a monophonic instrument; which is to say, it can only produce one pitch at a time.”
“And the theremin was an irreparably broken peice of shit not worth spitting over.”
“I was very excited by this, but not knowing what a "theremin" was, I had to reach Mr. Addams on the phone to ask.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘theremin’.
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Not in the Periodic Table
Words that sound like they might be the names of elements of the periodic table, but that aren't. Many of the words listed here were actually proposed as names for substances their creators thought...
tentorium, columbarium, nasturtium, deuterium, caladium, valerian, concordium, synangium, chorium, geranium, hymenium, pyrenium and 310 more...
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250 Cherry-Picked Words
Juicy words for the intermediate and advanced speller
consomme, miniaceous, nankeen, smaragdine, stramineous, vitellary, allemande, beguine, bransle, charabanc, margaritaceous, chaconne and 238 more...
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• There's an app for that
Especially focused on those iPhone apps that are supposed to be useful, but wouldn't probably play in Peoria.
Please list the purpose of the app (e.g. prewalking), not its name.prewalking, level, remote control, laundry-stain tre..., compass, ukulele tuning, is it Christmas, bad-hair forecast, rimshot, drunk-dialing, sitar attuning, australian crawling and 35 more...
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February 2012
filiopietistic, bifurcate, enclave, wedlock, decadent, unduly, defunct, lapel, tumescent, capitulation, leaden, scintilla and 83 more...
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WF - Words from Proper Names
bowdlerize, boycott, caesarean, lynch, pasteurize, sadist, sandwich, hoover, braille, wellington, cardigan, macintosh and 11 more...
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beatricks's Words
tremendous, naiad, thrush, samsara, thronging, nascent, broom, aristeia, streak, susurrant, reverberate, resistentialism and 352 more...
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spicolli's Words
terrapin, ravenous, fuck, sepulchral, garlic, suss, queer, curmudgeon, foodie, intricate, omphalos, subversion and 534 more...
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Musical Eponyms
list suggested by @grrillaesthete
Frippertronics, Moog, theremin, saxophone, sarrusophone, sousaphone, heckelphone
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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pixistix's Words
cumquat, circumlocution, panoply, propinquity, contumely, quietus, fardel, tmesis, tipsy, giddy, trudge, vortex and 211 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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GPaX. Words.
excogitate, clarity, obscurity, tangential, interesting, regurgitate, mycelium, degradation, unladen, swallow, klein, quote and 120 more...
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The Collection
A somewhat discriminatory list of words and phrases collected for their euphonic or arcane appeal, interesting etymology, or concise definition of an otherwise unnamed phenomenon or concept.
ziggurat, neophilia, sucker punch, soporific, epoch, tundra, fiat, idiotproof, miscellany, metaphysics, cryptozoology, dysphoria and 850 more...
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apostropher's Words
crampon, diaphanous, perspicacious, callipygian, thwart, mung, retromingent, penetralia, foible, retronym, coprophage, strabismus and 46 more...
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Spelling Bee 2011
HMH - Riverside / Rancho Cucamonga Office
onerous, ribald, scimitar, euchre, affidavit, pomegranate, Weevil, unbudgeable, corbel, fluorescent, googol, hemorrhage and 14 more...
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unusual words
words I have never seen before
Tweets
Looking for tweets for theremin.
oroboros A one-of-a-kind musical instrument: here's a demonstration. Jul 29, 2007