Definitions

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

  • noun A harpsichord.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A musical instrument of the harp family; a dulcimer.
  • noun Such an instrument played by means of keys or digitals; a harpsichord, and, later, a pianoforte or organ keyboard: short for clavicembalo.

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

  • noun (Mus.) An old name for the harpsichord.

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

  • noun music harpsichord

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

  • noun a clavier with strings that are plucked by plectra mounted on pivots

Etymologies

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

[Italian, short for clavicembalo, from Medieval Latin clāvicymbalum : Latin clāvis, key + Latin cymbalum, cymbal; see cymbal.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Borrowing from Italian cembalo, from Latin.

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