erhu

Syllables: er·hu/ˈɜːhuː/

erhu noun: a type of bowed spike fiddle having two strings, originating in China as part of the huqin family of string instruments.

Image: LDHan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

erhu (plural erhu or erhus)

A type of bowed spike fiddle having two strings, originating in China as part of the huqin family of string instruments.
- A rugged, handsome woman who can plant five fields in the time it takes others to plant one, Lu reveals her inner self by playing sweet music on the ehru ^([sic]) in a deserted factory site.1994 October, Andrea Freud Loewenstein, “No More Happy Endings”, in Gay Community News, page 28
- Searches on Craigslist turned up no ads for erhus, wanted or offered, though there was a posting for an instrument found on the Lower East Side (the owner must identify the instrument).2009 March 10, Jennifer 8. Lee, “Cherished Instrument Is Gone, and to Its Owner, Loss Is Like a Death”, in New York Times

From Mandarin 二胡 (èrhú), from 二 (èr, “two”) + 胡 (hú, “fiddle; short for 胡琴, a family of Chinese vertical fiddles”).

What does erhu mean?: Erhu means a type of bowed spike fiddle having two strings, originating in China as part of the huqin family of string instruments.
What is erhu in Vietnamese?: Erhu in Vietnamese is nhị hồ. See Erhu meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is erhu?: Erhu is a noun.
How do you pronounce erhu?: Erhu is pronounced /ˈɜːhuː/.
What is the plural of erhu?: The plural of erhu is erhu.

Adapted from Wiktionary: erhu (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

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