xylophone
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
- xylophonic adjective
- xylophonist noun
Etymology
Origin of xylophone
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How does xylophone compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
A xylophone is a long musical instrument with wooden bars that is played by hitting it with small, hammer-like mallets. The xylophone produces bright, sharp tones when stuck with these hard-headed mallets. The xylo- part of this word comes from the Greek for wood — xylon — and clues us in to what gives this instrument its unique sound: the graduated bars representing tones of the scale. A related word in English is xylem, the tissue that forms the woody part of plants. The phone part means "a sound" in Greek. If your instrument has metal bars instead of wooden ones, it is more likely to be a glockenspiel, not a xylophone.
Vocabulary lists containing xylophone
Common Senses: Phon ("Sound")
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Music to My Ears: Instrumental Vocab
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2015 Spelling Bee - Words from Round 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
At St. Anne School in Santa Monica, I watched Cummins harness the squirmy energy of second-graders wielding xylophone mallets.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 21, 2026
He holds small mallets in his “hands” to play a kind of xylophone called a marimba.
From NewsForKids.net • Apr. 1, 2024
They distributed xylophone mallets to those waiting in line.
From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2024
The article paints a scene of company employees striking a metal xylophone and applauding as they jubilantly gaslight their customers.
From Slate • Jul. 31, 2023
Rachel threw a xylophone, but the demon just swatted that away, too.
From "The Battle of the Labyrinth" by Rick Riordan
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
