plectrum
Americannoun
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plectra,
plural
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plectrums
plural
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a small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.
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Anatomy, Zoology. an anatomical part resembling a plectrum in shape.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of plectrum
1620–30; < Latin plēctrum < Greek plêktron
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:
“There were certain songs on the guitar I just couldn’t play, and my plectrum was getting stuck in the strings, so that was a bit of a red flag,” he says.
From BBC ● Mar. 10, 2024
He abandoned a plectrum for direct contact with the strings, ensuring that every note was distinct, different and mattered.
From Salon ● Jan. 15, 2023
The art studio of the latest rock star to trade in the plectrum for the paintbrush is not in the most starry of locations.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 4, 2018
Instead, we have a lot of percussion and plectrum, or plucking, instruments, including a zither, partly to give it a central European feeling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2015
I picked up a plectrum we kept on a nearby cabinet and plucked at the strings.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
In the clavicytherium at the Smithsonian Institution the plectra nearest the keyboard points to the player's left.
From Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries by John D. Shortridge
All of these three instruments had strings of brass, with quill plectra attached to pieces of wood.
From How the Piano Came to Be by Ellye Howell Glover
Master Jones, who roared as loud as ten thousand men when he was hurt; or as you vill roar if I catch you calling him Mars again?—Ares, who covered seven plectra of ground?
From The Caxtons — Complete by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton
The plectra nearest the keyboard points the same way whether the jack is upside down or not.
From Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries by John D. Shortridge
Each of these jacks has two plectra, one pointing to the right and one to the left.
From Italian Harpsichord-Building in the 16th and 17th Centuries by John D. Shortridge
As well as innovative collaborations he also created his own plectrums using dentist's acrylic and sometimes plucking his guitar's strings with objects such as pebbles and shells.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2023
And from the off, he was untethered from the stage, running up and down the crowd barriers to pose for selfies, clasp people's hands, hand out plectrums and read their signs.
From BBC ● Jul. 7, 2023
In one talked-about case last year, an unemployed Finn called Christian was caught carving and selling wooden guitar plectrums.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 31, 2017
Corresponding with changes in daily sunlight, solar photocells in the tree canopy trigger low-voltage charges, activating plectrums that pluck wire strings within the body of the sculpture.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 3, 2010
No one could adjust the quill plectrums of his Harpsichord to Bach's satisfaction; he always did it himself.
From Johann Sebastian Bach by Johann Nikolaus Forkel
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.
