bodhran

American

[baw-rahn] / ˈbɔ rɑn /

Or bodhrán

noun

a handheld, shallow Irish drum with a single goatskin head, played with a stick.

bodhrán British

/ baʊˈrɑːn, ˈboːrɑːn /

noun

a shallow one-sided drum popular in Irish and Scottish folk music

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of bodhran

1965–70; Irish Gaelic bodhrán, from Middle Irish bodrán, from bodar “deafening, deaf”

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.

The crowd sang along as Sheeran played the guitar, accompanied by the other artists on violin and the bodhrán - a traditional Irish frame drum.

From BBC • Aug. 6, 2025

The fellow with the bodhrán showed that it was all that he said it was.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 31, 2014

Last week at the Mac, the stunning new Metropolitan Arts Centre in the city's cathedral quarter, the cross-community 2012 McCracken summer school was launched to the sound of fiddle and bodhrán.

From The Guardian • Jul. 7, 2012

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023