harmonica

American  

[hahr-mon-i-kuh] / hɑrˈmɒn ɪ kə /

noun

• harmonicas
  plural

1. Also called mouth organ.  a musical wind instrument consisting of a small rectangular case containing a set of metal reeds connected to a row of holes, over which the player places the mouth and exhales and inhales to produce the tones.

2. any of various percussion instruments that use graduated bars of metal or other hard material as sounding elements.

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harmonica British  

/ hɑːˈmɒnɪkə /

noun

1. Also called: mouth organ.  a small wind instrument of the reed organ family in which reeds of graduated lengths set into a metal plate enclosed in a narrow oblong box are made to vibrate by blowing and sucking

2. See glass harmonica

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• harmonicas
  plural

Etymology

Origin of harmonica

Noun use of feminine of Latin harmonicus harmonic; in the form armonica (< Italian < Latin ) applied by Benjamin Franklin in 1762 to a set of musical glasses; later used of other instruments

Explanation

A harmonica is a musical instrument that's small enough to fit in your pocket. Harmonicas are especially popular in blues bands. Harmonicas have between 10 and 16 small holes, each with a small reed behind it. Players blow through one or more of the holes, changing the sound by pulling air at times instead, altering the shape and tension of the mouth, and by opening and closing their hands around the harmonica. Using these methods, great harmonica players can extract beautiful, complex sounds from this tiny instrument. The Greek root of harmonica is harmonikos, "musical."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

harmonica harmonicas

Nicknamed "The Clobberer", Ranken played drums, percussion, harmonica and provided vocals for The Pogues in the 90s and 00s.

From BBC ● Feb. 11, 2026

An example of a highly creative response includes words like "galaxy, fork, freedom, algae, harmonica, quantum, nostalgia, velvet, hurricane, photosynthesis."

From Science Daily ● Jan. 25, 2026

The Grateful Dead featured Garcia also on guitar, McKernan on organ and harmonica, Phil Lesh on bass and Bill Kreutzmann on drums.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 11, 2026

That persistent harmonica intro or, god-forbid, his later forays into doo-wop were an eternal annoyance, part of the reason he started looking for some alternative in the first place.

From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2025

He was sitting at the foot of Grandfather’s bed playing the harmonica.

From "Stone Fox" by John Reynolds Gardiner

On Venus, sounds that are caused by solid objects vibrating, like harmonicas or reed organ pipes, would be pitched down because the atmosphere is dense and soupy.

From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2025

After all, not only did she have those pictures on her wall, she also has one of Dylan’s harmonicas.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2024

And when a small army of harmonicas gently peeked out from behind the work’s often mournful textures, they glimmered delicately.

From New York Times ● Oct. 21, 2021

At the ribbon-cutting of the BB King Museum down in Mississippi back in 2008 I had 1,500 kids with harmonicas marching down the street.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 30, 2016

The musical instruments most in evidence were jew's-harps and harmonicas.

From A Backward Glance at Eighty Recollections & comment by Charles A. (Charles Albert) Murdock

Related Words

• harp