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

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

She strummed on a psaltery which looks like a large, shallow cigar-box with strings.

From Time Magazine Archive

Then, when the fad for folk singing mushroomed in the late 1950s, everyone was suddenly stuck on the psaltery.

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

“A good deal,” declared Tess, although she had no idea herself just what a psaltery was, and was unaware that she had made a mistake quite as inexcusable as Dot’s.

From The Corner House Girls on a Tour Where they went, what they saw, and what they found by Hill, Grace Brooks