trombone
UK/ˌtɹɒmˈbəʊn//ˌtɹɑmˈboʊn/
trombone noun: a musical instrument in the brass family, having a cylindrical bore, and usually a sliding tube (but sometimes piston valves, and rarely both). Most often refers to the tenor trombone, which is the most common type of trombone and has a fundamental tone of B♭ˌ (contra B♭).
Noun
trombone (plural trombones or tromboni)
- A musical instrument in the brass family, having a cylindrical bore, and usually a sliding tube (but sometimes piston valves, and rarely both). Most often refers to the tenor trombone, which is the most common type of trombone and has a fundamental tone of B♭ˌ (contra B♭).
- Jim plays the trombone very well.
- This trombone is very expensive.
- The common European bittern.
- A kind of extendable support for attaching lighting elements to a set.
- The trombone […] permits an instrument to be positioned over a studio set wall, enabling the set wall to support the weight of the instrument.1983, Alan Wurtzel, Television Production, page 131
- The two secondary controls are the trombone handle and the focus knob.2013, Harry Box, Set Lighting Technician's Handbook, page 480
Verb
trombone (third-person singular simple present trombones, present participle tromboning, simple past and past participle tromboned)
- To transmit a signal or data back to a central switching point before sending it out to its destination.
- To extend and retract (the zoom lens); to use it too enthusiastically.
- […] do things wrong (like rotating the lens turret while shooting or backwinding and doing multiple passes on the same strip of film or doing in-camera fades with the variable shutter or tromboning a zoom lens like a teenager on acid, etc., etc., etc.) […]2015, Kathryn Ramey, Experimental Filmmaking: Break the Machine, page 357
- He recalls (email to editor, 2 December 2012) that Durgnat 'shouted out' in response to his 'tromboning' the zoom-lens at the film's 1967 London Film Festival screening: […]2014, Henry K. Miller, The Essential Raymond Durgnat, page 71
trombone meaning in Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada
trombone in Tamil
- a musical instrument in the brass family
- துரம்போன் turampōṉ
trombone in Marathi
- a musical instrument in the brass family
- ट्रॉम्बोन ṭrŏmbon
trombone in Malayalam
- a musical instrument in the brass family
- ട്രോംബോൺ ṭrōmbōṇ
trombone in Kannada
- ಕಹಳೆ, ಕೊಂಬುವಾದ್ಯ, ಕೊಂಬು
More languagesFewer languages
- trombone in Tagalog
- trombon
- trombone in Arabic
- مُتَرَدِّدَة mutaraddida, تْرُومْبُون trūmbūn
- trombone in Malay
- trombon
- trombone in Indonesian
- trombon
- trombone in Persian
- ترومبون
- trombone in Thai
- ทรอมโบน trɔm-boon
- trombone in Myanmar
- ထရွမ်းဗုန်း hta.rwam:bun:
Examples of trombone in a sentence
- The visual where the trombone all threw their instruments into the air looked good.
- Will you please stop playing that wretched trombone!
- Trumpet is a transposing instrument while trombone is not.
Forms of trombone
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | trombones |
| plural | tromboni |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | trombones |
| present participle | tromboning |
| past participle | tromboned |
| past | tromboned |
Origin of trombone
Borrowed from Italian trombone, from tromba (“trumpet”) + -one (augmentative), literally “large trumpet”. The telecommunications sense alludes to the shape of the musical instrument.
Words formed from trombone
- alto trombone
- bass trombone
- double trombone
- rusty trombone
- sad trombone
- slide trombone
- tenor trombone
- trombone-player
- valide trombone
- valve trombone
- drumbone
- superbone
- tromboner
- tromboney
- tromboning
- trombonist
Questions about trombone
- What does trombone mean?
- Trombone means a musical instrument in the brass family, having a cylindrical bore, and usually a sliding tube (but sometimes piston valves, and rarely both). Most often refers to the tenor trombone, which is the most common type of trombone and has a fundamental tone of B♭ˌ (contra B♭).
- What is trombone in Tamil?
- Trombone in Tamil is துரம்போன் (turampōṉ). See Trombone meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is trombone?
- Trombone can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce trombone?
- Trombone is pronounced /ˌtɹɒmˈbəʊn/ (UK).
- What is the plural of trombone?
- The plural of trombone is trombones.
Words near trombone in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: trombone (page history and authors); trombone (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-trombone.ogg.
Cite this entry: “trombone.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/trombone. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.