xylophone
[zahy-luh-fohn]
- a musical instrument consisting of a graduated series of wooden bars, usually sounded by striking with small wooden hammers.
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Origin of xylophone
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for xylophone
Contemporary Examples
After much thought and reflection, I have decided to pursue my first loves--modern dance and the xylophone.
My ribs are like a xylophone, and the knobs of my spine stick up like ponderous cairns in the landscape of my back.
Historical Examples
A touch like a xylophone player, but he knows how to use his feet.
A Book of BurlesquesH. L. Mencken
Just above the portico of his house Billie has his xylophone.
Then it paused, and the sonorous voice of the xylophone spoke to the jungle.
The Pathless TrailArthur O. (Arthur Olney) Friel
I played a xylophone and a saxophone and an accordion––all sorts of things.
The Cup of FuryRupert Hughes
It thrashed its bony arms impatiently and its ribs rattled like a xylophone.
Myths And Legends Of Our Own Land, CompleteCharles M. Skinner
xylophone
- music a percussion instrument consisting of a set of wooden bars of graduated length. It is played with hard-headed hammers
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Word Origin
C19: from xylo- + -phone
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for xylophone
n.
1866, coined from Greek xylon "wood" + phone "a sound" (see fame (n.)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper