Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A Russian musical instrument with a triangular body and three strings that produces sounds similar to those of a mandolin.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A musical instrument of very ancient Slavic origin, common among the Russians and Tatars, and, according to Niebuhr, also in Egypt and Arabia.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun a stringed instrument of Russian origin that has a triangular body and three strings.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun music A Russian musical instrument, similar to a guitar, with a triangular body.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stringed instrument that has a triangular body and three strings

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Russian balalaĭka, of Turkic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Russian балалайка (balalájka).

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