oud

/uːd/

oud noun: a short-necked and fretless plucked stringed instrument of the lute family, of Arab and Turkish origin.

Image: Céréales Killer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

oud (countable and uncountable, plural ouds)

A short-necked and fretless plucked stringed instrument of the lute family, of Arab and Turkish origin.
- Oriental music is chiefly unrhythmical [...]. It is mostly rendered by a solo voice with accompaniment of the Ud, a kind of lyre or mandolin, or Kanun, resembling a guitar.1929, Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish Music: Its Historical Development, page 25
- Common throughout the Arab and Persian world, the oud is a fretless short-neck lute with a pear-shaped, flat top, rounded back, and a peghead characteristically bent backwards at a very sharp angle. The oud's origins are unknown, although myths attribute either celestial or magical beginnings, it...2010, Randy Raine-Reusch, Play The World: The 101 Instrument Primer, Mel Bay Publications, →ISBN, page 22
(perfumery) Agarwood, in particular the noble rot of Aquilaria trees used to make perfumes.
- The recent fashion for oud (the noble rot of Aquilaria trees) took flight when YSL released M7, where the oud accord was center stage. It came with an advertising campaign featuring a hairy naked guy, a sight rated “beautiful” by my co-author. Real oud is complex material, with honey, tobacco...2010, Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez, “M7”, in Perfumes: The A–Z Guide, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 233

oud meaning in Hindi, Punjabi, Arabic and Persian

oud in Hindi

Arabic plucked string instrument: औद aud

oud in Punjabi

Arabic plucked string instrument: ਊਦ ūda

oud in Arabic

Arabic plucked string instrument: عُود ʕūd

oud in Persian

Arabic plucked string instrument: عود 'ud

More languagesFewer languages

oud in Thai: อู๊ด úut

Examples of oud in a sentence

Common throughout the Arab and Persian world, the oud is a fretless short-neck lute with a pear-shaped, flat top, rounded back, and a peghead characteristically bent backwards at a very sharp angle.2010, Randy Raine-Reusch, Play The World: The 101 Instrument Primer, Mel Bay Publications, →ISBN, page 22:
The recent fashion for oud (the noble rot of Aquilaria trees) took flight when YSL released M7, where the oud accord was center stage.2010, Luca Turin, Tania Sanchez, “M7”, in Perfumes: The A–Z Guide, Profile Books, →ISBN, page 233:

Forms of oud

plural	ouds
alternative form	'ud
alternative form	oudh

Origin of oud

From Arabic عُود (ʕūd). Doublet of lute.

Words formed from oud

oudist

Phrases with oud

oud bruins

Words that rhyme with oud

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about oud

What does oud mean?: Oud means a short-necked and fretless plucked stringed instrument of the lute family, of Arab and Turkish origin.
What is oud in Hindi?: Oud in Hindi is औद (aud). See Oud meaning in Hindi.
How do you use oud in a sentence?: Common throughout the Arab and Persian world, the oud is a fretless short-neck lute with a pear-shaped, flat top, rounded back, and a peghead characteristically bent backwards at a very sharp angle.
What part of speech is oud?: Oud is a noun.
How do you pronounce oud?: Oud is pronounced /uːd/.
What is the plural of oud?: The plural of oud is ouds.

Words near oud in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: oud (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

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

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