Word.ws English Dictionary

sistra

sistra is the plural of sistrum.

Meaning of sistrum

Noun

sistrum (plural sistrums or sistra)

  1. An ancient Egyptian musical instrument, to be shaken, consisting of a metal frame holding percussive metal beads.
    • She moved with slow undulations of her body as lascivious as the curve of Hathfertiti’s hair, and the sistrum with its singing wires was played by a dwarf wearing nothing but a gold purse and a few bracelets on his stunted biceps.1983, Norman Mailer, Ancient Evenings

Questions about sistra

What is sistra the plural of?
Sistra is the plural of sistrum.

Words near sistra in the dictionary

  1. Sisti
  2. Sistine
  3. sisting
  4. Sistis
  5. Siston
  6. sistra
  7. sistren
  8. sistrens
  9. sistrum
  10. sistrums
  11. Sistrunk

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sistra (page history and authors); sistrum (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: “sistra.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sistra. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.