psaltery
Americannoun
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psalteries
plural
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an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum.
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(initial capital letter) the Psalter.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of psaltery
1300–50; Middle English sautrie < Middle French sauter(i)e < Late Latin psaltērium; see Psalter
Vocabulary lists containing psaltery
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:
They cite Joachim of Fiore, a 12th-century theologian, who conceived of the Trinity as a three-sided psaltery with 10 strings and a central sound hole representing God.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
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
Beers's grandfather taught him to play the psaltery, but his real ambition was to be a concert violinist.
From Time Magazine Archive
Along with lonely exponents of the virginal, the psaltery and the oboe d'amore, there are 166 violinists, 88 organists, 73 harpsichordists, 64 flautists and 56 cellists listed, each count a statistical gain over 1960.
From Time Magazine Archive
The trumps and psaltery played to wine, Although no drums were beating; For six months sat the Rodenstein, To Rhine wine measures treating.
From Gaudeamus! Humorous Poems by Joseph Victor von Scheffel
He brought a bit of everything with him: lutes, gambas, hurdy-gurdies, psalteries, fancy carved music stands and even a serpent, an old wind instrument that looks like its namesake.
From New York Times ● Jun. 15, 2011
Once, he had carried Robin to another part of the monastery, and showed him where records of everyday living were written and poems and psalteries copied.
From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli
The noise of drums, fifes, psalteries, harps, and sackbuts was heard.
From Voltaire's Romances, Complete in One Volume by
In the Old Testament there were several kinds of divine music; some of trumpets, some of psalteries and harps, some of cymbals, and other kinds of musical instruments.
From True Christianity by Johann Arndt
They liked also to hear of the instruments played upon before the Lord by those that went ahead of the Ark; harps, psalteries, and timbrels; cornets, cymbals, and instruments made of fir-wood.
From The Seeker by Harry Leon Wilson
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.
