mandolin

American  

[man-dl-in, man-dl-in] / ˈmæn dl ɪn, ˌmæn dlˈɪn /

noun

mandolins plural

1. a musical instrument with a pear-shaped wooden body and a fretted neck.

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mandolin British  

/ ˌmændəˈlɪn /

noun

1. a plucked stringed instrument related to the lute, having four pairs of strings tuned in ascending fifths stretched over a small light body with a fretted fingerboard. It is usually played with a plectrum, long notes being sustained by the tremolo

2. a vegetable slicer consisting of a flat stainless-steel frame with adjustable cutting blades

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• mandolinist
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• mandolins
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mandolin

1700–10; < Italian mandolino, diminutive of mandola, variant of mandora, alteration of pandora bandore

Explanation

A mandolin is a bit like a small guitar — it's a musical instrument with a wooden body, strings, and a long neck. A musician plays a mandolin by plucking or strumming the strings. Its sound is higher than a guitar, and it's often played alongside lower-pitched instruments, such as banjos and guitars. The mandolin is popular around the world and in many different kinds of music; in the United States, it's played most often in country music. The word itself comes from the Italian mandolino, which is an altered form of the Latin pandura, or "three-stringed lute."

Example Sentences

Rima Fand’s pleasant, folk-tinged score is illustrative rather than striking; the accompanying ensemble of mandolin, string quartet and bass, led from the piano by Mila Henry, plays a lot of ostinatos.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 12, 2026

A former child prodigy on the mandolin, Hull opened the evening flexing her Berklee-trained chops in a series of lickety-split bluegrass numbers that got early arrivers whistling with approval.

From Los Angeles Times • May 17, 2025

He played the guitar and mandolin, and she played the violin.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2025

Take “Time on My Hands,” for instance, in which Starr contributes a heartbreaking vocal about the fleeting nature of human experience, or “Come Back,” wherein Ringo contemplates loneliness with fiddle and mandolin accompaniment.

From Salon • Jan. 10, 2025

Through barter and the generosity of a few friends, he soon owned a ragged collection of old stringed instruments—a mandolin, several guitars, an old ukulele, and two banjos.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown