concertina
Americannoun
-
a musical instrument resembling an accordion but having buttonlike keys, hexagonal bellows and ends, and a more limited range.
verb (used without object)
-
concertinas,
present (3rd person singular)
-
concertinaed,
past participle, past
-
concertinaing
present participle
verb (used with object)
-
concertinas,
present (3rd person singular)
-
concertinaed,
past participle, past
-
concertinaing
present participle
adjective
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
concertinasimple
-
concertinassimple
-
have concertinaedperfect
-
has concertinaedperfect
-
am concertinaingprogressive
-
are concertinaingprogressive
-
is concertinaingprogressive
-
have been concertinaingperfect progressive
-
has been concertinaingperfect progressive
Past
-
concertinaedsimple
-
had concertinaedperfect
-
was concertinaingprogressive
-
were concertinaingprogressive
-
had been concertinaingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of concertina
Apparently coined by the original instrument's inventor, English instrument-maker Charles Wheatstone (1802–75), who patented it in 1829; cf. concertino, seraphina a similar instrument
Vocabulary lists containing concertina
Musical Instruments - Middle School
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
Musical Instruments - High School
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
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:
Behind the concertina wire encircling the bases, Germans could experience American bowling alleys and drive-in theaters.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 13, 2026
The concertina wire used to barricade the road has been moved to one side and local people and flocks of sheep can be seen making their way down.
From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2025
After weeks of desperation, migrants pass a toddler under a tangle of concertina wire strung across the edge of U.S. soil.
From Seattle Times ● May 6, 2024
They were headed, about 150 of them, for the demilitarized zone: the narrow buffer strip between North and South Korea that is heavily guarded by concertina wire and rifle-toting soldiers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2024
“He never wanted to go anywhere either. Always sitting under that elm on the hill, playing that concertina and dreaming the days away. And what happened?”
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
For the journey to London, the stand – which concertinas down into a relatively small space – will be put into an aluminium crate that regulates temperature and humidity.
From BBC ● Jun. 4, 2026
The museum, opened in October 2011, now has more than 400 accordions, flutinas, concertinas and other related artifacts, ephemera and memorabilia, dating from 1820 to the present day.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 14, 2015
Literature, she says, has the potential to give us texts in which “the experiences of the old unfold and collapse back, like concertinas, into narratives that are rarely reducible to age itself.”
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 1, 2015
No restaurateur or chef worth his Himalayan salt will fail to conjure up the image of the tiny, colorful village, with its exotic, weather-hardened inhabitants speaking Gaelic and playing concertinas in a musky, ancient tavern.
From Time ● Aug. 10, 2011
There is a common belief that the crowd that goes to the Derby is a cheerful crowd—that it sings and plays concertinas and changes hats.
From The Pleasures of Ignorance by Robert Lynd
Their third-floor apartment now sits at eye level, crushed under piles of concertinaed concrete slabs from the OPP 26 building in coastal Caraballeda, one of the districts hardest hit by the quakes.
From Barron's ● Jul. 6, 2026
After a season that's been so tiring under difficult circumstances and concertinaed it will be important to rotate.
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2021
In the lift, once the doors have concertinaed closed, he says cheerily to another doctor: “This young lady has come to discuss a donation her family have made to the department.”
From The Guardian ● Jun. 3, 2017
The front of the crash happened where traffic was coming off the bridge towards Sittingbourne, and it had then "concertinaed" over the bridge behind it with incidents stretching back to Queenborough, he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2013
But she had died, nine years ago, and his father had contracted, as if a weight had settled on him and concertinaed him downward and inward.
From "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell
“The biggest issue is we have heard and read many comments about poverty and the concertinaing of wealth in fewer and fewer hands,” said Peters.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 19, 2017
Then Beetle, concertinaing his books, observed to Winton, 'When King's really on tap he's an interestin' dog.
From A Diversity of Creatures by Rudyard Kipling
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.
