Word.ws English Dictionary

armonica

armonica noun: a musical instrument made of blown-glass bowls mounted on a spindle turned originally by a foot pedal, and played with wetted fingers, producing an ethereal sound. Technically, it is a crystallophone.

Noun

armonica (plural armonicas)

  1. A musical instrument made of blown-glass bowls mounted on a spindle turned originally by a foot pedal, and played with wetted fingers, producing an ethereal sound. Technically, it is a crystallophone.
    Synonyms:
    glass harmonica

Synonyms of armonica

Forms of armonica

pluralarmonicas

Origin of armonica

Coined by Benjamin Franklin, its inventor; built on Italian armonia (“harmony”). Glass harmonica is a corruption of Franklin's original word, a back-formation influenced by harmonica (a reed instrument invented sixty years later).

Words formed from armonica

Questions about armonica

What does armonica mean?
Armonica means a musical instrument made of blown-glass bowls mounted on a spindle turned originally by a foot pedal, and played with wetted fingers, producing an ethereal sound. Technically, it is a crystallophone.
What part of speech is armonica?
Armonica is a noun.
What is the plural of armonica?
The plural of armonica is armonicas.

Words near armonica in the dictionary

  1. Armon
  2. Armona
  3. Armond
  4. Armonds
  5. armoniac
  6. armonica
  7. armonicas
  8. armonicist
  9. armonicists
  10. armonico
  11. armonicos

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: armonica (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “armonica.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/armonica. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.