Definitions

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

  • noun A percussion instrument consisting of a mounted row of wooden bars that are graduated in length to sound a chromatic scale, played with two small mallets.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A musical instrument consisting of a graduated series of wooden bars, often supported on bands of straw, and sounded by means of small wooden hammers or by rubbing with rosined gloves. The tone is often agreeable and effective. Also gigelira, sticcada, and strawfiddle.

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

  • noun (Mus.) An instrument common among the Russians, Poles, and Tartars, consisting of a series of strips of wood or glass graduated in length to the musical scale, resting on belts of straw, and struck with two small hammers. Called in Germany strohfiedel, or straw fiddle.
  • noun An instrument to determine the vibrative properties of different kinds of wood.

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

  • noun a musical instrument made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like hammer.

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

  • noun a percussion instrument with wooden bars tuned to produce a chromatic scale and with resonators; played with small mallets

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From xylo- (“of wood”) + -phone (“sound”).

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Examples

  • More importantly, I believe the xylophone is a painfully under-utilized instrument.

    Archive 2008-12-01 CC 2008

  • More importantly, I believe the xylophone is a painfully under-utilized instrument.

    Just because ... LuLu 2008

  • The xylophone is a species of harmonica composed of strips or cylinders of wood, struck with two little hammers.

    Principles of orchestration 1923

  • David, another interesting part in the studio version of "Tell It To The Rain" that you might have noticed is the xylophone, which is duplicated by the guitar in the introduction of

    xml's Blinklist.com 2008

  • I vomited at the thought of one more weirdie-beardy, ski-cap-wearing indie band shoving a glockenspiel in my face (and can we knock it off and just call it a "xylophone" maybe already?), and at first listen I'll have to confess at having no great jones to have another round of this.

    Glide Magazine - Music :: Culture :: Life 2009

  • You cannot blame people if they cannot manage such compl ... "dm10003 said:" i think the xylophone is a subliminal cu m shot of ridicule by the producers. good thing the soul is ... "

    Boing Boing 2009

  • First, "neutrality" means simply that everything on the Internet must travel at the same speed, whether it's the Bluetooth device that connects my cardiac monitor to a hospital or a kid downloading a video of a cat playing the xylophone.

    Everett Ehrlich: Why Liberals Should Think Twice About Net Neutrality Everett Ehrlich 2011

  • A six-story-high microtonal xylophone that can produce smaller intervals between achievable tones than are heard when playing conventional Western musical scales.

    George Heymont: There's Art Right At Your Fingertips! George Heymont 2010

  • A six-story-high microtonal xylophone that can produce smaller intervals between achievable tones than are heard when playing conventional Western musical scales.

    George Heymont: There's Art Right At Your Fingertips! George Heymont 2010

  • First, "neutrality" means simply that everything on the Internet must travel at the same speed, whether it's the Bluetooth device that connects my cardiac monitor to a hospital or a kid downloading a video of a cat playing the xylophone.

    Everett Ehrlich: Why Liberals Should Think Twice About Net Neutrality Everett Ehrlich 2011

Comments

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  • Was there ever a time when it was acceptable to say it as "zill-a-phone" rather than "zye-la-phone?"

    August 6, 2011