Word.ws English Dictionary

humstrum

humstrum noun: an instrument out of tune or rudely constructed.

Noun

humstrum (countable and uncountable, plural humstrums)

  1. An instrument out of tune or rudely constructed.
  2. A hurdy-gurdy.
  3. (uncountable) Music badly played, or poor singing.
    • I was very much struck with a melancholy figure of a blind man, who was singing a song of love[…]"Here are two shillings for thee, my blind Cupid, for which you are not obliged to me, but to a noble gentleman who stands within five yards of you. So get into harbour, and make thyself warm, and keep...1801, Entertaining story-teller

Forms of humstrum

pluralhumstrums

Questions about humstrum

What does humstrum mean?
Humstrum means an instrument out of tune or rudely constructed.
What part of speech is humstrum?
Humstrum is a noun.
What is the plural of humstrum?
The plural of humstrum is humstrums.

Words near humstrum in the dictionary

  1. HumpyCase
  2. hums
  3. hums along
  4. Humshaugh
  5. HUMSS
  6. humstrum
  7. humstrums
  8. humuhumu
  9. humuhumunukunukuapua'a
  10. humuhumunukunukuapuaa
  11. humuhumunukunukuapuaas

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: humstrum (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: “humstrum.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/humstrum. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.