oboe

¹ American  

[oh-boh] / ˈoʊ boʊ /

noun

1. a woodwind instrument having a slender conical, tubular body and a double-reed mouthpiece.

2. (in an organ) a reed stop with a sound like that of an oboe.

3. (a word formerly used in communications to represent the letterO. )

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oboe ² American  

[oh-boh] / ˈoʊ boʊ /

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. a navigation system utilizing two radar ground stations that measure the distance to an aircraft and then radio the information to the aircraft.

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oboe British  

/ ˈəʊbəʊ /

noun

1. a woodwind instrument of the family that includes the bassoon and cor anglais, consisting of a conical tube fitted with a mouthpiece having a double reed. It has a penetrating nasal tone. Range: about two octaves plus a sixth upwards from B flat below middle C

2. a person who plays this instrument in an orchestra

   second oboe

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oboe Cultural  

1. A woodwind instrument played with a double reed; similar to a bassoon, but pitched higher. Some describe its tone as nasal.

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Discover More

The oboe appears frequently as a solo instrument in symphonies and other kinds of classical music.

Other Word Forms

• oboist noun

Etymology

Origin of oboe¹

1690–1700; < Italian < French hautbois, equivalent to haut high + bois wood; hautboy

Origin of oboe²

First recorded in 1940–45; special use of oboe ¹

Explanation

An oboe is a long, black musical instrument. You play an oboe by blowing into its mouthpiece and pressing keys to form notes. The earliest oboe was modeled after an extremely loud, high-pitched Middle Eastern instrument called the shawm. The name oboe was originally hautbois, or "high, loud wood" in French, also sometimes spelled hoboy in English. The Italians transliterated the French name to oboè, and the English followed around 1770 with oboe. Another distinctive feature of the oboe is its double reed mouthpiece.

Example Sentences

Steven Osgood ably conducted the two-piano accompaniment; Jesse Barrett played the haunting oboe solos.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 22, 2025

And you can’t accompany yourself because you can’t sing with an oboe in your mouth.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 15, 2025

Nollman mainly plays slide guitar for whale species, but has worked with a wide range of other musicians, including a grammy-winning oboe player, violinists, percussionists, a chanting Tibetian lama and more.

From Salon • Aug. 23, 2024

The performance on Wednesday, conducted by Jane Glover, was supposed to include Mozart’s Oboe Concerto, with the solo part taken by the orchestra’s principal oboe, Liang Wang.

From New York Times • May 9, 2024

“If you do that,” Zane told her, the skateboard whirring under his feet as his eyes scanned his book, not even the least distracted, “I’ll tell them you haven’t practiced oboe in a week.”

From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff