Word.ws English Dictionary

dulcimer

Syllables: dul·ci·mer/ˈdʌl.sɪ.mə/US/ˈdʌl.sɪ.mɚ/

dulcimer noun: a stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).

dulcimer: a stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played...
Image: UpperPalatine, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

dulcimer (plural dulcimers)

  1. A stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).
    • A damsel with a dulcimer / In a vision once I saw: / It was an Abyssinian maid / And on her dulcimer she played, / Singing of Mount Abora.1797, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”, in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Other Poems, Courier Dover Publications, published 1992, →ISBN, page 59
    • Accompanying himself with his dulcimer, a plectrum instrument of his own handicraft, Niles harks back to the balladeers of old.1947 January 25, “Album Reviews: The Seven Joys of Mary—John: Jacob Niles (Disc 732)”, in The Billboard, volume 59, number 4, Nielsen Business Media, →ISSN, page 32

dulcimer meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

dulcimer in Hindi

musical instrument
संतूर santūr

dulcimer in Marathi

musical instrument
डल्सिमर ḍalsimar

dulcimer in Urdu

سنتور

dulcimer in Bengali

এক ধরনের তারযুক্ত বাদ্যযন্ত্র
More languagesFewer languages
dulcimer in Vietnamese
xim-ba-lum

Forms of dulcimer

pluraldulcimers

Origin of dulcimer

From Old French doulcemelle, probably from Latin dulce melos (“sweet song”), from Ancient Greek μέλος (mélos, “melody, song”).

Words formed from dulcimer

Phrases with dulcimer

Questions about dulcimer

What does dulcimer mean?
Dulcimer means a stringed instrument, with strings stretched across a sounding board, usually trapezoidal, played by plucking on the strings (traditionally with a quill) or by tapping on them (in the case of the hammer dulcimers).
What is dulcimer in Hindi?
Dulcimer in Hindi is संतूर (santūr). See Dulcimer meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is dulcimer?
Dulcimer is a noun.
How do you pronounce dulcimer?
Dulcimer is pronounced /ˈdʌl.sɪ.mɚ/ (US).
What is the plural of dulcimer?
The plural of dulcimer is dulcimers.

Words near dulcimer in the dictionary

  1. dulcijo
  2. dulcijos
  3. dulciloquence
  4. dulciloquent
  5. dulciloquy
  6. dulcimer
  7. dulcimerist
  8. dulcimerists
  9. dulcimerlike
  10. dulcimers
  11. dulcimore

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dulcimer (page history and authors); dulcimer (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dulcimer (Bengali 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dulcimer.wav.

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