quena
quena noun: a traditional flute of the Andes.

Noun
quena (plural quenas)
- A traditional flute of the Andes.
- One song the group performed on Thursday, “La Partida,” featured lovely bell harmonics from the guitars, a shifting pattern of cross‐rhythms on the guitar‐like charango, and a quena lead.1978 April 14, “Music: Inti‐Illimani, From the Andes”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
- As the band’s traditional instrumentalist, Yuri Callisaya, shrilled on the quena, the band’s fans sang along with Mr. Méndez: “Ama sua, ama llulla, ama quella,” which translates as, “Don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t be lazy.”2013 December 31, William Neuman, “Headbanging in Bolivia to the Flutes of Yore”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
Forms of quena
| plural | quenas |
|---|---|
| alternative form | kena |
Origin of quena
Borrowed from Spanish quena.
Questions about quena
- What does quena mean?
- Quena means a traditional flute of the Andes.
- What part of speech is quena?
- Quena is a noun.
- What is the plural of quena?
- The plural of quena is quenas.
Words near quena in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: quena (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:
Cite this entry: “quena.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/quena. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
