violin

[ vahy-uh-lin ]

noun

1. the treble instrument of the family of modern bowed instruments, held nearly horizontal by the player's arm with the lower part supported against the collarbone or shoulder.
2. a violinist or part for a violin.

violin

/ ˌvaɪəˈlɪn /

noun

1. a bowed stringed instrument, the highest member of the violin family, consisting of a fingerboard, a hollow wooden body with waisted sides, and a sounding board connected to the back by means of a soundpost that also supports the bridge. It has two f-shaped sound holes cut in the belly. The instrument, noted for its fine and flexible tone, is the most important of the stringed instruments. It is held under the chin when played. Range: roughly three and a half octaves upwards from G below middle C

violin

1. The most familiar and highest-pitched instrument of the strings . A typical symphony orchestra has more than two dozen violinists.

Word History and Origins

Origin of violin¹

1570–80; < Italian violino, equivalent to viol ( a ) ( viola ¹ ) + -ino diminutive suffix

Word History and Origins

Origin of violin¹

C16: from Italian violino a little viola, from viola ¹

Example Sentences

He learned from Cremonese violin makers that worm damage was rare there, which made him suspect that instrument makers had developed closely-guarded recipes for staving off pests.

From Popular-Science

Sometimes he’d spend three to four hours a day on hold while practicing violin or browsing job ads on the internet.

From ProPublica

I can’t just play them like a piano, I need to play them like a violin, where I’m coaxing, rather than pushing, the sound out of them.

From Nautilus

That’s when a mostly unknown 14-year-old violin prodigy sliced through not one, but two E strings during a particularly scorching passage of Leonard Bernstein’s sumptuous and demanding “Serenade” — under the composer’s baton no less.

From Washington Post

Violin Concerto, plus his two romances for violin and orchestra, made just after the covid shutdown.

From Washington Post

If a stellar-mass black hole is a violin, an IMBH is a double bass.

From The Daily Beast

The Democrats will emphasize the violin stories, and they will exist, too.

From The Daily Beast

One hat in the Press Room is designed from black velvet with a violin perched on top of a skull cap.

From The Daily Beast

On the right, there emerged on Tuesday a universally mocking view that Russia is playing Obama like a cheap violin.

From The Daily Beast

The woman who played an omnipotent American president like her personal violin.

From The Daily Beast

Frulein Fichtner had already departed, but the first violinist played Mendelssohn's famous concerto for violin.

From Project Gutenberg

He is on the violin what Liszt is on the piano, and is the only artist worthy to be mentioned in the same breath with him.

From Project Gutenberg

As soon as Oertling touched his violin I saw that he was a superior artist, and that immediately inspired me.

From Project Gutenberg

The Violin is an instrument which, though small and of trifling original cost, has yet commanded most extraordinary prices.

From Project Gutenberg

The two most pleasing, expressive, and powerful single instruments of music are the human voice and the violin.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• fiddle