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:
He used to play songs for me on the mandolin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
He brought his mandolin with him when he was 16 years old on a boat by himself and landed at Ellis Island.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
Rima Fand’s pleasant, folk-tinged score is illustrative rather than striking; the accompanying ensemble of mandolin, string quartet and bass, led from the piano by Mila Henry, plays a lot of ostinatos.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 12, 2026
In my final week, a new activity leader began staging music concerts and playing the mandolin in the lounges, to the great joy of some residents.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2025
Yet when he was young he used to play the mandolin, and he knew the words and the melody of every current song.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Dulak still draws inspiration from nature, and from making mandolins in the workshop next to his home.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 4, 2023
M. M. Keeravani, the song’s composer, used duffs, an Indian skin drum, for the main beats, adding in mandolins for the melody.
From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 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
Arshag still has his dad’s old instruments — the ouds, bouzoukis, banjos, synths and mandolins.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2021
He would let you live in the warehouse for free if you carved pegs or sanded a few mandolins now and again.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
