mandolin
Americannoun
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mandolins
plural
noun
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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
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a vegetable slicer consisting of a flat stainless-steel frame with adjustable cutting blades
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
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."
Vocabulary lists containing mandolin
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:
Busby began moonlighting in the honky tonks and was soon making more money with his mandolin than he could as a fed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
He used to play songs for me on the mandolin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
In my final week, a new activity leader began staging music concerts and playing the mandolin in the lounges, to the great joy of some residents.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2025
He played the guitar and mandolin, and she played the violin.
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2025
Who sits around without a shirt on, plucking a mandolin?
From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson
The Parton family was musical, and there were always banjos, fiddles, mandolins and guitars around the cabin.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 25, 2026
Dulak still draws inspiration from nature, and from making mandolins in the workshop next to his home.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 4, 2023
M. M. Keeravani, the song’s composer, used duffs, an Indian skin drum, for the main beats, adding in mandolins for the melody.
From New York Times ● Mar. 12, 2023
Meloni said she had no intention of ditching current support for Ukraine, saying the cliched image of Italy being a lightweight nation of "spaghetti and mandolins" had to end.
From Reuters ● Aug. 25, 2022
On a nearby stage, a woman sings “Funiculi Funicula” to a background of mandolins and guitars.
From "A Heart in a Body in the World" by Deb Caletti
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.
