mandolin
Americannoun
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mandolins
plural
noun
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a plucked stringed instrument related to the lute, having four pairs of strings tuned in ascending fifths stretched over a small light body with a fretted fingerboard. It is usually played with a plectrum, long notes being sustained by the tremolo
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a vegetable slicer consisting of a flat stainless-steel frame with adjustable cutting blades
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of mandolin
1700–10; < Italian mandolino, diminutive of mandola, variant of mandora, alteration of pandora bandore
Explanation
A mandolin is a bit like a small guitar — it's a musical instrument with a wooden body, strings, and a long neck. A musician plays a mandolin by plucking or strumming the strings. Its sound is higher than a guitar, and it's often played alongside lower-pitched instruments, such as banjos and guitars. The mandolin is popular around the world and in many different kinds of music; in the United States, it's played most often in country music. The word itself comes from the Italian mandolino, which is an altered form of the Latin pandura, or "three-stringed lute."
Vocabulary lists containing mandolin
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:
The mostly instrumental “Panorama” swirls banjo, mandolin, strings and horns with droning electronics, landing on a kind of spaced-out Americana.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
In its rules, the academy states that traditional country recordings, among other things, employ “traditional country instrumentation such as acoustic guitar, steel guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, piano, electric guitar and live drums.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 2, 2025
He played the guitar and mandolin, and she played the violin.
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2025
He started off on the guitar, then moved onto the mandolin, and is now trying to learn the fiddle, all "just for enjoyment".
From BBC ● Jan. 12, 2025
He makes room next to his paintings, his railroad cars, and his violin and mandolin and mandola.
From "The Boy Who Dared" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti
“We had this weird guitar ensemble,” says Graham, “with lots of different guitars and mandolins, mandocellos, a zither, some keyboards — all old-fashioned stuff — bass, some percussion, a couple of cellos and a harmonica.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 13, 2023
Eight or more duffs were used for the beats, primarily supported by timpani and other percussion from a synthesizer and mandolins for the melody, along with further processed elements.
From New York Times ● Feb. 21, 2023
Meloni said she had no intention of ditching current support for Ukraine, saying the cliched image of Italy being a lightweight nation of "spaghetti and mandolins" had to end.
From Reuters ● Aug. 25, 2022
While Pickathon — which, this year, took place Aug. 1-4 — is rooted in roots music, banjos and mandolins are hardly mandatory.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 5, 2019
Four boys get up from the crowd, with mandolins and homemade drums in hand.
From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung
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