sitar
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of sitar
First recorded in 1835–45, sitar is from the Hindi word sitār
Explanation
A sitar is a stringed instrument used in classical Indian music. Music you hear at an Indian restaurant or in a Bollywood movie probably features the distinctive twangy drone of the sitar. Although thousands of years old, the sitar got famous in the West in the 1960s when bands like the Kinks and the Beatles used sitars in popular songs. Sitars have long necks and as many as 21 strings. It's like a guitar, but in addition to the six or seven strings that a sitar player plucks, there are more that vibrate beneath the frets, called "sympathetic strings." Despite all these strings, the word sitar means "three-stringed" in Persian.
Vocabulary lists containing sitar
Music to My Ears: Instrumental Vocab
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Musical Instruments - Middle School
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Pet
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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.
"I'm a professional musician, and also teach music," Amir Hussain Khan, a sitar player, told AFP.
From Barron's • Apr. 11, 2026
Around me: Jamaican steel drums, an electrified sitar, Mexican women selling churros, Chinese immigrants painting tourists’ names in calligraphy.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 6, 2026
Whether it’s a semi-ironic obsession with artisanal cheese-making, a random passion for sitar music or a stubborn preference for a flip phone, there are many wonderful contradictions about humans that algorithms can’t quite pin down.
From Salon • Sep. 26, 2025
Other stars gracing the 2025 season include soprano of the moment Aigul Akhmetshina, making her Proms debut, violinist Randall Goosby, sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar, Pakistani-American singer Arroj Aftab, and Grammy award-winner Angelique Kidjo.
From BBC • Apr. 23, 2025
We heard the sound of a sitar and tabla.
From "Homeless Bird" by Gloria Whelan
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.
