sitar

[si-tahr]

noun

a lute of India with a small, pear-shaped body and a long, broad, fretted neck.

Origin of sitar

First recorded in 1835–45, sitar is from the Hindi word sitār

Related formssi·tar·ist, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sitar

Contemporary Examples of sitar

First up, he got interested in Indian music and took lessons on sitar from Ravi Shankar.
What It Was Like to Watch the Beatles Become the Beatles—Nik Cohn Remembers
Nik Cohn
February 9, 2014

Historical Examples of sitar

They got the ship all right, but Dunark and Sitar got away—they're still with their salt!
Skylark Three
Edward Elmer Smith
Or his voice, deep and soft as the sitar when it sings of love?
The Ninth Vibration And Other Stories
L. Adams Beck
Sitar jumped up happily, completely restored, and the three women threw their arms around each other.
Skylark Three
Edward Elmer Smith
The remnant of an sitar, or high place, occupies the centre of the cloistered quadrangle.
Diary in America, Series Two
Frederick Marryat (AKA Captain Marryat)
Motee sang again; but the accompaniment was wild and irregular, and the Khan at last threw down the sitar.
Confessions of a Thug
Philip Meadows Taylor

British Dictionary definitions for sitar

sitar

noun

a stringed musical instrument, esp of India, having a long neck, a rounded body, and movable frets. The main strings, three to seven in number, overlie other sympathetic strings, the tuning depending on the raga being performed

Derived Formssitarist, noun

Word Origin for sitar

from Hindi sitār, literally: three-stringed

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for sitar

1845, from Hindi sitar, from Persian sitar "three-stringed," from si "three" (Old Persian thri-; see three) + tar "string" (see tenet).