Adjacent Words

zither definitions

	Tweet

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a musical stringed instrument with strings stretched over a flat sounding board; it is laid flat and played with a plectrum and with fingers [syn: zither, cither, zithern]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: German, from Old High German zitara, cithara, from Latin cithara cithara — more at cither Date: 1850 a stringed instrument having usually 30 to 40 strings over a shallow horizontal soundboard and played with pick and fingers • zitherist noun

Britannica Concise

Plucked or struck stringed instrument with a shallow soundbox. The common Austrian zither is roughly rectangular and has 30-40 strings; it is placed on the player's knees or on a table. Several melody strings pass over a fretted fingerboard; the player's left hand stops these strings, while the right hand plucks with the fingers and a thumb plectrum. The larger zither family includes such instruments as the Aeolian harp, autoharp, cimbalom, dulcimer, koto, and even the clavichord, harpsichord, and piano.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. a musical instrument consisting of a flat wooden soundbox with numerous strings stretched across it, placed horizontally and played with the fingers and a plectrum. Derivatives: zitherist n. Etymology: G (as CITTERN)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Zither Zith"er, n. [G. zither. See Cittern.] (Mus.) An instrument of music used in Austria and Germany. It has from thirty to forty wires strung across a shallow sounding-board, which lies horizontally on a table before the performer, who uses both hands in playing on it. Note: [Not to be confounded with the old lute-shaped cittern, or cithern.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(zithers) A zither is a musical instrument which consists of two sets of strings stretched over a flat box. You play the zither by pulling the strings with both hands. N-COUNT