plectra

Noun

plectrum (plural plectrums or plectra)

1. A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.
   • For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I...1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Winter Animals”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC, page 292

   Synonyms:

   guitar pick, pick, plectre

2. A projection of bone or other stiff tissue, such as the ridges in some insects' stridulatory organs.