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Definition of "dulcimer" [dul•ci•mer]

  • A narrow, often hourglass-shaped stringed instrument having three or four strings and a fretted fingerboard, typically held flat across the knees while sitting and played by plucking or strumming. Also called Appalachian dulcimer, mountain dulcimer. (noun)
  • The hammered dulcimer. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "dulcimer" in a sentence
  • "No collecting of musical instruments here, although I have to say that I seriously contemplated learning the viola or mountain dulcimer for about a year ... and then remembered that my old piano teacher had gone grey trying to teach me rhythm."
  • "The baby had not been christened yet, but Diamond, in reading his Bible, had come upon the word dulcimer, and thought it so pretty that ever after he called his sister Dulcimer!"
  • "Here is Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" played on a dulcimer, which is exactly how Lars intended it."