psaltery

American  

[sawl-tuh-ree] / ˈsɔl tə ri /

noun

plural

psalteries

1. an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum.

2. (initial capital letter) the Psalter.

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psaltery British  

/ ˈsɔːltərɪ /

noun

1. music an ancient stringed instrument similar to the lyre, but having a trapezoidal sounding board over which the strings are stretched

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Etymology

Origin of psaltery

1300–50; Middle English sautrie < Middle French sauter(i)e < Late Latin psaltērium; Psalter

Example Sentences

It is akin to the biblical instrument called the psaltery.

From Time Magazine Archive

The action is accompanied by music suggestive of everything from Gregorian chant to folk song, played on reproductions of such authentic medieval instruments as a psaltery, a rebec, a minstrel's harp.

From Time Magazine Archive

But the demand for psaltery players and country fiddlers was not exactly booming.

From Time Magazine Archive

When possible, they stuffed their 150-lb. psaltery, dulcimer, fiddles, banjos, guitars, buckskin drums and camping equipment into and on top of their Volkswagen and toured the mountain towns and country fairs.

From Time Magazine Archive

Reed instruments for dance and song; Brave horns beneath the blue; The sistrum and the thunder-gong; The pipe and tabour, too; And all the craft of minstrelsy: Harp, sackbut, cymbal, psaltery, Were fashioned.

From The Piper and the Reed by Norwood, Robert W.