- a variation of timpani.
tympani
Britishplural noun
Explanation
Tympani are large, deeply resonant drums. When you go to the symphony, you'll most likely hear tympani being played. Tympani, which are also known as timpani, timps, or kettledrums, are made of drum heads stretched across big metal bowls. The shape of their copper bodies explains the "kettle." The word tympani itself comes from the Latin root tympanum, or "drum." The sound of tympani is probably more familiar than you realize — the noise they make can sound just like thunder.
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.
His steps have percussive presence, the tympani and an edgy theme to make you eagerly await this intractable Hollywood luminary to pounce.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2023
Trumpets sounded brassy, violins silky, tympani boomy, clarinets reedy, and they were all laid across the “soundstage,” just like in a concert hall, in spacious depth and lifelike proportions.
From Slate ● Feb. 20, 2015
The amplified vibration is picked up by the oval window causing pressure waves in the fluid of the scala vestibuli and scala tympani.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
I had to leave the Royal Albert Hall halfway through a Prom because the strings sounded like dry percussion, the high woodwind screamed, and brass and tympani boomed painfully.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 7, 2010
Males of the two species can be readily separated by the relative sizes of the tympani, presence or absence of vocal slits, and color pattern.
From A Taxonomic Revision of the Leptodactylid Frog Genus Syrrhophus Cope by John D. Lynch
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.
