cithara

American  

[sith-er-uh] / ˈsɪθ ər ə /

noun

1. kithara.

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cithara British  

/ ˈsɪθərə /

noun

1. a stringed musical instrument of ancient Greece and elsewhere, similar to the lyre and played with a plectrum

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Other Word Forms

• citharist
  noun

Etymology

Origin of cithara

C18: from Greek kithara

Example Sentences

In fact, Nero often played a type of lyre called a cithara.

From Scientific American • Aug. 9, 2023

Diaphanous gold and black chiffon dresses, bound with winding ribbons, pleated and worn with metallic cithara garlands.

From New York Times • May 30, 2017

Among the Greeks many judges, and those by no means of the least reputation, gave the most decided preference to the music of the cithara, the lyre of Apollo, over the flute.

From The History of Antiquity, Vol. I (of VI) by Duncker, Max

Terpander introduced the seven-stringed lyre, or cithara, with its compass of a diapason, or Greek octave, and this became the peculiar instrument of Sappho and her school.

From Greek Women by Carroll, Mitchell

For the descent of the guitar-fiddle, the first bowed ancestor of the violin, through many transitions from the cithara, see Cithara, Guitar and Guitar-Fiddle.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 10, Slice 3 "Fenton, Edward" to "Finistere" by Various