Word.ws English Dictionary

jew's harp

jew's harp is the alternative spelling of Jew's harp.

Noun capitalized: Jew's harp

Jew's harp (plural Jew's harps)

  1. A musical instrument consisting of a thin flexible reed mounted in a stiff crescent frame. The narrow end of the frame is held between the teeth and the reed is plucked to produce a note of constant pitch. Melodies and overtones are created by changing the shape of the oral cavity.
    • The lad, his son, had obtained a Jew's-harp, and learned to play upon it the profane airs of "Yankee Doodle," "Hail Columbia," "St. Patrick's Day," and "Auld Lang Syne."1850, T. S. Arthur, “Deacon Smith and his Violin”, in Sketches of Life and Character, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 70
    • “Because I recognized their sentinel when I glanced out of my window. He is a harmless enough fellow, Parker by name, a garroter by trade, and a remarkable performer upon the jew’s-harp.1903 September 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Empty House”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    guimbarde, mouth harp, mouth organ, Jew's-trump and trump, Judaic harp

Synonyms of jew's harp

Forms of jew's harp

pluraljew's harps
pluralJew's harps

Origin of jew's harp

The word harp is often applied to a wide variety of instruments in English, including many (such as this one) that are not "harps" in the most specific sense. The origin of Jew's is uncertain: it is widely accepted that the instrument has no musicological or etymological connection with Jews and the word was capitalized due to the mistaken belief in a connection. Some have connected it to the Cleveland dialectal gew-gaw, related to the Old Norse giga, compare modern Swedish giga, Danish gige, German Geige (“fiddle”). Others have suggested a connection with jaws, the synonym jaw harp may have therefore come first. Other theories point to French jeu-trompe (literally “toy-trumpet”), compare Jew's-trump.

Words formed from jew's harp

Questions about jew's harp

What does jew's harp mean?
Jew's harp means a musical instrument consisting of a thin flexible reed mounted in a stiff crescent frame. The narrow end of the frame is held between the teeth and the reed is plucked to produce a note of constant pitch. Melodies and overtones are created by changing the shape of the oral cavity.
What is jew's harp the alternative spelling of?
Jew's harp is the alternative spelling of Jew's harp.
What part of speech is jew's harp?
Jew's harp is a noun.
What is the plural of jew's harp?
The plural of jew's harp is jew's harps.

Words near jew's harp in the dictionary

  1. Jew Yorker
  2. Jew Yorkers
  3. Jew's ear
  4. Jew's ears
  5. Jew's frankincense
  6. jew's harp
  7. jew's harpist
  8. jew's harpists
  9. jew's harps
  10. Jew's house
  11. Jew's lime

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jew's harp (page history and authors); Jew's harp (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-Jew's harp.wav.

Cite this entry: “jew's harp.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/jew%27s_harp. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.