woodwinds
Save This Word!
A group of wind instruments with a softer tone than that of brass instruments. Woodwind players do not set the air in their instruments in motion by blowing through their closed lips against a cup-shaped mouthpiece, as players of brass instruments do. In woodwinds, the players insert the mouthpiece into their mouths and blow while pressing their lips against a single or double reed. Bassoons, clarinets, oboes, and saxophones are played in this way. In other woodwinds, the player blows across a hole (fifes, flutes, and piccolos) or into a whistlelike mouthpiece (recorders).
QUIZZES
WERE YOU BAMBOOZLED BY THE WORDS FROM FEBRUARY?
We understand! Words are tricky that way. Take this quiz on the Words of the Day from February, 2021, to show that you’re far from frumious!
Question 1 of 10
Which Word of the Day means “happening within or being the created world of a story”?
Words nearby woodwinds
wood warbler, Woodward, wood wasp, woodwaxen, woodwind, woodwinds, wood, woods, wood-wool, wood woollyfoot, woodwork, woodworker
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Example sentences from the Web for woodwinds
The percussion rolls like thunder, the woodwinds climax, the camera swoops upward, and we see the brass plaque: The Olive Garden.
Frank Underwood Will Not Tolerate Insubordination in This Olive Garden|Kelly Williams Brown|February 24, 2014|DAILY BEAST