woodwinds

Cultural  

1. 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).

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Example Sentences

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woodwinds

Mr. Spears’s orchestration is similarly evocative of this timeless state, with rumbles, lush strings, and no high woodwinds.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 24, 2026

I can hear the woodwinds and strings in your ode to creative lawyering in the states.

From Slate ● Jan. 10, 2026

I went through the woodwinds — played saxophone, then I played oboe.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 15, 2025

The striking “Porcelana,” about enduring pain for fleeting pleasure, has a woozy, dissonant arrangement that mixes woodwinds, shrieking strings, and skittering percussion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 11, 2025

Most woodwinds can get two different octaves with essentially the same fingering; the lower octave is the fundamental of the column of air inside the instrument at that fingering.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones