xylophone

See also: Xylophone

English

A xylophone

Etymology

From xylo- (“of wood”) +‎ -phone (“sound”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɪ.lə.ˌfəʊn/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈzaɪləˌfoʊn/

• Audio (GA)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: xy‧lo‧phone

Noun

xylophone (plural xylophones)

1. (music) Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylophone or one of its derivatives.

   All I know how to play on my xylophone is "Mary Had a Little Lamb". Would you like to hear it?

Derived terms

• concert xylophone
• metal xylophone
• stone xylophone
• xylophonist

 

Translations

musical instrument

• Afrikaans: xilofoon
• Albanian: ksilofon (sq)
• Arabic: سِيلُوفُون m (sīlūfūn)
• Armenian: քսիլոֆոն (hy) (kʻsilofon)
• Asturian: xilófonu m
• Azerbaijani: ksilofon
• Basque: xilofono
• Belarusian: ксілафо́н m (ksilafón)
• Bulgarian: ксилофо́н m (ksilofón)
• Burmese: ပတ္တလား (my) (patta.la:)
• Catalan: xilòfon (ca) m
• Cherokee: ᎠᏓ ᏗᎦᎾᎵ ᏗᎬᏅᏍᏙᏗ (ada diganali digvnvsdodi)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 木琴 (muk⁶ kam⁴)

  Mandarin: 木琴 (zh) (mùqín)

• Czech: xylofon (cs) m
• Danish: xylofon (da) c
• Dutch: xylofoon (nl) m
• Esperanto: ksilofono
• Estonian: ksülofon
• Faroese: sylofon f
• Finnish: ksylofoni (fi)
• French: xylophone (fr) m
• Galician: xilófono (gl) m
• German: Xylophon (de) n
• Greek: ξυλόφωνο (el) n (xylófono)
• Hebrew: קסילופון (he) m (ksilofón)
• Hungarian: xilofon (hu)
• Icelandic: sílófónn m
• Ido: xilofono (io)
• Indonesian: xilofon (id)
• Irish: xileafón m
• Italian: xilofono (it) m
• Japanese: 木琴 (ja) (もっきん, mokkin), シロフォン (ja) (shirofon)
• Korean: 실로폰 (ko) (sillopon)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: darînk

• Latin: xylophonium n
• Latvian: ksilofons m
• Lithuanian: ksilofonas m
• Low German:

  German Low German: Xylophon, Xylofon

• Macedonian: ксилофон m (ksilofon)
• Malagasy: atranatrana (mg)
• Malay: xilofon (ms)
• Marathi: जाय्लोफोन m (jāylophon)
• Mirandese: xilofone
• Moksha: кальхциямат (kaľhćijamat), ксилофон (kśilofon)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: xylofon m

  Nynorsk: xylofon m

• Occitan: xilofòn m
• Persian: سنتور چوبی
• Polish: ksylofon (pl) m inan
• Portuguese: xilofone (pt) m
• Romanian: xilofon (ro) m
• Russian: ксилофо́н (ru) m (ksilofón)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: ksilofon (sh) m

• Silesian: ksylofůn
• Sinhalese: සයිලොෆෝන් (sayilofōn)
• Slovak: xylofón m
• Slovene: ksilofon (sl) m
• Spanish: xilófono (es) m, marimba (es) f
• Swahili: zilofoni, marimba ya kizungu
• Swedish: xylofon (sv) c
• Tagalog: silopono
• Tamil: சுரம் இசைவி (curam icaivi)
• Thai: ระนาด (rá-nâat), ไซโลโฟน
• Tibetan: ཤིང་དཀྲོལ། (shing dkrol)
• Turkish: ksilofon (tr)
• Ukrainian: ксилофо́н m (ksylofón)
• Uzbek: ksilofon
• Vietnamese: mộc cầm
• Welsh: seiloffon m
• West Frisian: ksylofoan
• Yiddish: קסילאָפֿאָן m (ksilofon)

See also

• glockenspiel
• marimba
• vibraphone

References

• Vienna Symphony Orchestra. "Xylophone".

Verb

xylophone (third-person singular simple present xylophones, present participle xylophoning, simple past and past participle xylophoned)

1. To play a xylophone or to play something else as though it was a xylophone.
2. To move above a ridged surface or series of surfaces so as to hit every ridge, in a manner similar to playing quickly and sequentially on a xylophone.
   • 2002, Amu Nnadi, The Fire Within: Poetry : Includes the Abiola Manuscript:

     my eager fingers xylophoning over the memories

   • 2010 October 26, Barrie Summy, I So Don't Do Spooky, Yearling, →ISBN, page 27:

     Like a cat, I arch into the back of the bench, my spine xylophoning along the slats while the tension of the day slowly drains out of me. I'm totally chill and mellow.

   • 2015 July 7, Guillermo del Toro, Daniel Kraus, Trollhunters: The Book That Inspired the Netflix Animated Series TROLLHUNTERS!, Disney Electronic Content, →ISBN:

     The others waged active war, claws xylophoning across Jack's pinwheeling swords.

   • 2020 August 4, George A. Romero, Daniel Kraus, The Living Dead, Tor Books, →ISBN:

     His right hand, the good one, found one of Glass's ankles, pulled. Glass fell, her ulna, clavicle, pevis, and kneecap xylophoning along stair edges.

Anagrams

• oxyphenol

French

Etymology

From xylo- +‎ -phone.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡzi.lɔ.fɔn/, /ksi.lɔ.fɔn/

• audio

  (file)

Noun

xylophone m (plural xylophones)

1. xylophone

Descendants

• → Russian: ксилофо́н (ksilofón) (see there for further descendants)
• → Romanian: xilofon
• → Turkish: ksilofon

Further reading

• “xylophone”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.