vibraphone

American  

[vahy-bruh-fohn] / ˈvaɪ brəˌfoʊn /

noun

1. Also vibes a musical percussion instrument that resembles a marimba and is played with mallets, but that has metal instead of wooden bars and has a set of electrically powered resonators for sustaining the tone or creating a vibrato.

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vibraphone British  

/ ˈvaɪbrəˌfəʊn, ˈvaɪbrəˌhɑːp /

noun

1. a percussion instrument, used esp in jazz, consisting of a set of metal bars placed over tubular metal resonators, which are made to vibrate electronically

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Other Word Forms

• vibraphonist noun

Etymology

Origin of vibraphone

First recorded in 1925–30; from Latin vibrā(re) “to shake” + -phone

Compare meaning

How does vibraphone compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• vibraphone vs. xylophone

Example Sentences

Squeezing past a set of congas he came to his signature instrument – the vibraphone.

From BBC • Dec. 27, 2025

Immanuel Wilkins’s alto saxophone and Joel Ross’s vibraphone initially function as dual narrators.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 25, 2025

When Puts reaches for percussion instruments, he chooses the sweeter ones — glockenspiel, crotales, chimes, vibraphone — and combines them luxuriously.

From New York Times • May 6, 2024

The riches haven’t materialized yet, DeBardi stressed, as he listed the instruments — everything from a vibraphone to timpanis to guitars — he bought on the cheap when he had “like, $300 to my name.”

From Seattle Times • Jan. 16, 2024

Music historians will always remember him as the man who introduced the vibraphone into jazz.

From 100 New Yorkers of the 1970s by Millard, Max