Word.ws English Dictionary

jews'-harp

jews'-harp is the alternative spelling of Jew's harp.

Meaning of Jew's harp

Noun

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
    Synonyms:
    guimbarde, mouth harp, mouth organ, Jew's-trump and trump, Judaic harp

Noun capitalized: Jews'-harp

Jews'-harp (plural Jews'-harps)

  1. (alternative) Alternative spelling of Jew's harp.

Forms of jews'-harp

pluraljews'-harps
pluralJews'-harps

Questions about jews'-harp

What is jews'-harp the alternative spelling of?
Jews'-harp is the alternative spelling of Jew's harp.
What part of speech is jews'-harp?
Jews'-harp is a noun.
What is the plural of jews'-harp?
The plural of jews'-harp is jews'-harps.

Words near jews'-harp in the dictionary

  1. jews up
  2. Jews' harp
  3. Jews' harps
  4. Jews' houses
  5. Jews' pitch
  6. jews'-harp
  7. jews'-harps
  8. jews-harp
  9. jews-harpist
  10. jews-harpists
  11. jews-harps

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jews'-harp (page history and authors); Jews'-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.

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