Definition of "theremin" [theremin]

• An electronic instrument played by moving the hands near its two antennas, often used for high tremolo effects. (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.

• "The theremin is also probably the only musical instrument designed by a man who also designed bugging equipment for the Soviet security system."
• "A theremin is a musical instrument ... a sort of electrical coil which gives off a humming sound."
• "I said I was embarrassed not to know; someone had assured me that a theremin was a kind of "Eastern" religion, and the "cracking into a thousand pieces" was the consequence of being peered at by a waiflike holy man enveloped in a white shroud."