cornet

/ˈkɔːnɪt//kɔɹˈnɛt/

cornet noun: a musical instrument of the brass family, slightly smaller than a trumpet, usually in the musical key of B-flat.

Image: Yamaha Corporation, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

cornet (plural cornets)

A musical instrument of the brass family, slightly smaller than a trumpet, usually in the musical key of B-flat.

Synonyms:

cornet-à-piston, cornet-à-pistons
A piece of paper twisted to be used as a container.
An ice cream cone (the shell itself).
(UK, broadly, dated) An ice cream cone (the unit comprising the shell and the ice cream).
(obsolete) A troop of cavalry; so called from its being accompanied by a cornet player.
- They discerned a body of five cornets of horse very full, standing in very good order to receive them.1702–1704, Edward [Hyde, 1st] Earl of Clarendon, (please specify |book=I to XVI), in The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, Begun in the Year 1641. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed...
A kind of organ stop.
A hollow horn-like growth.

Noun (2)

cornet (plural cornets)

The white headdress worn by the Sisters of Charity.
(obsolete) The standard flown by a cavalry troop.
(historical) The fifth commissioned officer in a cavalry troop, who carried the colours (equivalent to the ensign in infantry).
- No general would have sent a mere cornet in command of five hundred horse: Fairfax despatched a colonel to take charge as soon as he heard what had happened.1972, Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down, Folio Society, published 2016, page 45
- This cornet [translating Cornet] was a brave young cavalier and not more than two years older than me.1999, Mike Mitchell, translating HJC von Grimmelshausen, Simplicissimus, III.14, Dedalus 2016, p. 253

cornet meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

cornet in Tamil

கோணெற்று, சிற்றூதுகொம்பு

cornet in Urdu

نفیری

cornet in Bengali

একটি পিতলের বাদ্যযন্ত্র

cornet in Malayalam

കാഹളം, കുഴൽവാദ്യം

More languagesFewer languages

cornet in Malay: kornet
cornet in Vietnamese: kèn coonê

Synonyms of cornet

cornet-à-piston
cornet-à-pistons

Forms of cornet

plural	cornets

Plural of cornet: cornets

Origin of cornet

From Middle English cornet, from Old French cornet, a diminutive of a popular reflex of Latin cornū (“horn”).

From Middle French cornette, diminutive of corne, from Latin cornua (“horns”).

Words formed from cornet

Phrases with cornet

Mounted Cornet

Words that rhyme with cornet

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about cornet

What does cornet mean?: Cornet means a musical instrument of the brass family, slightly smaller than a trumpet, usually in the musical key of B-flat.
What is cornet in Tamil?: Cornet in Tamil is கோணெற்று, சிற்றூதுகொம்பு. See Cornet meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is cornet?: Cornet is a noun.
How do you pronounce cornet?: Cornet is pronounced /kɔɹˈnɛt/ (US).
What is the plural of cornet?: The plural of cornet is cornets.

Words near cornet in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: cornet (page history and authors); cornet (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cornet (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cornet (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cornet (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-cornet.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-cornet.wav.

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