tuning fork

noun

1. a steel instrument consisting of a stem with two prongs, producing a musical tone of definite, constant pitch when struck, and serving as a standard for tuning musical instruments, making acoustical experiments, and the like.

tuning fork

noun

1. a two-pronged metal fork that when struck produces a pure note of constant specified pitch. It is used to tune musical instruments and in acoustics

Word History and Origins

Origin of tuning fork¹

First recorded in 1765–75

Example Sentences

She begins two weeks before the airport car shows up at her door and fills multiple suitcases with many more clothes than she’ll wear, snacks, even a tuning fork.

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They also approached the spiders with a tuning fork that vibrated at the same frequency as the insects’ beating wings.

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Davis and a team of undergraduates from the Odum School used a tuning fork to simulate the vibrations caused by prey when caught in a spider's web and then watched if the spiders attacked.

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“One morning we got in this argument, and she picked up this fork and threw it across the table and it stuck in my side. It sounded like a tuning fork.”

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The U-M researchers point to what's called the Hubble tuning fork, a diagram that depicts the way astronomer Edwin Hubble classified galaxies.

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