noun
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Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of musician
1350–1400; Middle English musicien < Middle French. See music, -ian
Explanation
Anyone who plays music can be called a musician. Whether you're playing the cello on stage at Carnegie Hall or playing the harmonica on a subway platform, you're a musician. While this word is most often used to mean a professional instrumentalist, it can also refer to someone who writes or sings music, and even your brother's friend who occasionally plays the drums in a Led Zeppelin cover band. Musician originally meant "one skilled in music," from the Latin musica, "the art of music and poetry," which has a Greek root, mousike, "art of the Muses."
Vocabulary lists containing musician
List 2
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -an
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He is not the first musician to raise concerns over ticket pricing.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
Luis Sustaita, 49, a mariachi musician who had voted Republican in previous years, says he will be voting for Bobby Pulido.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026
His brother, Manus, is also a noted musician and producer.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2026
The musician missed a shot and his arrow passed through the fence and came close to striking a neighbor in her backyard as her husband stood nearby.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026
“It’s by a great musician named Marvin Gaye. He was very talented but also very troubled. In his song, he says, ‘There’s only three things that’s for sure: taxes, death, and trouble.’”
From "Dragons in a Bag" by Zetta Elliott
Other organisations like Sofar Sounds work exclusively with grassroots musicians, putting on intimate pop-up gigs in cities across the globe.
From BBC ● Oct. 24, 2026
Along the way, it features both of her grandparents, the soul legend Al Green, four separate orchestras and more than 100 musicians.
From BBC ● Oct. 22, 2026
L.A. will miss Cole’s French Dip, frequented by decades of artists, musicians and writers, including Charles Bukowski; plus, “Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair” at the Vista, and George Strait at Sofi Stadium.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
Courtesy of the Lee List, I’d hosted dozens of actors, musicians and screenwriters in my guesthouse over the decades.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026
It’s in Soho—a square mile of soot-stained chimney pots in a sector rife with artists, musicians, restaurants, and a street market.
From "The Bletchley Riddle" by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
