Word.ws English Dictionary

cither

UK/ˈsɪθə/US/ˈsɪθɚ/

cither is the alternative form of cittern.

Meaning of cittern

Noun

cittern (plural citterns)

  1. A stringed instrument (chordophone), played with a plectrum (a pick), and most commonly possessing four wire strings and chromatic frets, which is a precursor to the modern day guitar.
    • This discourse took us much time, till it was time to go to bed; but we being merry, we bade my Lady goodnight, and intended to have gone to the Post-house to drink, and hear a pretty girl play of the cittern (and indeed we should have lain there, but by a mistake we did not), but it was late, and...1661 January 17, Samuel Pepys, Diary of Samuel Pepys: January 1661

Forms of cither

pluralcithers

Origin of cither

From Latin cithara, from Ancient Greek κιθάρα (kithára). Doublet of cithara, guitar, and zither.

Questions about cither

What is cither the alternative form of?
Cither is the alternative form of cittern.
How do you pronounce cither?
Cither is pronounced /ˈsɪθə/ (UK).

Words near cither in the dictionary

  1. citharists
  2. citharode
  3. citharodes
  4. citharoedic
  5. citharæ
  6. cither
  7. cithern
  8. citherns
  9. cithers
  10. cithren
  11. cithrens

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: cither (page history and authors); cittern (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.

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