plectrum
Americannoun
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a small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.
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Anatomy, Zoology. an anatomical part resembling a plectrum in shape.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of plectrum
1620–30; < Latin plēctrum < Greek plêktron
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:
"I was always very clumsy with a plectrum," they say.
From BBC ● May 30, 2025
He abandoned a plectrum for direct contact with the strings, ensuring that every note was distinct, different and mattered.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2023
Instead, we have a lot of percussion and plectrum, or plucking, instruments, including a zither, partly to give it a central European feeling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2015
She was credited with having invented a certain kind of lyre and the plectrum.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 9, 2015
I picked up a plectrum we kept on a nearby cabinet and plucked at the strings.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
Master Jones, who roared as loud as ten thousand men when he was hurt; or as you vill roar if I catch you calling him Mars again?—Ares, who covered seven plectra of ground?
From The Caxtons — Complete by Lytton, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron
Implements less developed belong to a separate order of sound-producing contrivances, namely plectra, and may be described as permitting strumming by striking in place of twanging or twitching the strings.
From The Violin Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators by Hart, George
All of these three instruments had strings of brass, with quill plectra attached to pieces of wood.
From How the Piano Came to Be by Glover, Ellye Howell
The direction in which the plectra of each row of jacks should be pointing is not known.
From Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries by Shortridge, John D.
In the clavicytherium at the Smithsonian Institution the plectra nearest the keyboard points to the player's left.
From Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries by Shortridge, John D.
As well as innovative collaborations he also created his own plectrums using dentist's acrylic and sometimes plucking his guitar's strings with objects such as pebbles and shells.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2023
Trujillo, who was in the area while headlining at Download festival in Leicestershire, purchased an Ian Dury album with £20 and four plectrums the band had used at the festival.
From BBC ● Jun. 15, 2023
In one talked-about case last year, an unemployed Finn called Christian was caught carving and selling wooden guitar plectrums.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 31, 2017
Corresponding with changes in daily sunlight, solar photocells in the tree canopy trigger low-voltage charges, activating plectrums that pluck wire strings within the body of the sculpture.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 3, 2010
No one could adjust the quill plectrums of his Harpsichord to Bach's satisfaction; he always did it himself.
From Johann Sebastian Bach by Forkel, Johann Nikolaus
Definitions 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.
