PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does percussion instrument mean? 

• PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT (noun)
  The noun PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT has 1 sense:

1. a musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another

  Familiarity information: PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERCUSSION INSTRUMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A musical instrument in which the sound is produced by one object striking another

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Synonyms:

percussion instrument; percussive instrument

Hypernyms ("percussion instrument" is a kind of...):

instrument; musical instrument (any of various devices or contrivances that can be used to produce musical tones or sounds)

Meronyms (parts of "percussion instrument"):

hammer; mallet (a light drumstick with a rounded head that is used to strike such percussion instruments as chimes, kettledrums, marimbas, glockenspiels, etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "percussion instrument"):

bones; castanets; clappers; finger cymbals ((used in the plural) a percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance)

bell; chime; gong (a percussion instrument consisting of a set of tuned bells that are struck with a hammer; used as an orchestral instrument)

cymbal (a percussion instrument consisting of a concave brass disk; makes a loud crashing sound when hit with a drumstick or when two are struck together)

drum; membranophone; tympan (a musical percussion instrument; usually consists of a hollow cylinder with a membrane stretched across each end)

glockenspiel; orchestral bells (a percussion instrument consisting of a set of graduated metal bars mounted on a frame and played with small hammers)

gong; tam-tam (a percussion instrument consisting of a metal plate that is struck with a softheaded drumstick)

kettle; kettledrum; timpani; tympani; tympanum (a large hemispherical brass or copper percussion instrument with a drumhead that can be tuned by adjusting the tension on it)

lagerphone (an Australian percussion instrument used for playing bush music; a long stick with bottle caps nailed loosely to it; played by hitting it with a stick or banging it on the ground)

maraca (a percussion instrument consisting of a hollow gourd containing pebbles or beans; often played in pairs)

marimba; xylophone (a percussion instrument with wooden bars tuned to produce a chromatic scale and with resonators; played with small mallets)

forte-piano; piano; pianoforte (a keyboard instrument that is played by depressing keys that cause hammers to strike tuned strings and produce sounds)

rain stick (a percussion instrument that is made from a dried cactus branch that is hollowed out and filled with small pebbles and capped at both ends; makes the sound of falling rain when tilted; origin was in Chile where tribesmen used it in ceremonies to bring rain)

steel drum (a concave percussion instrument made from the metal top of an oil drum; has an array of flattened areas that produce different tones when struck (of Caribbean origin))

triangle (a percussion instrument consisting of a metal bar bent in the shape of an open triangle)

vibes; vibraharp; vibraphone (a percussion instrument similar to a xylophone but having metal bars and rotating disks in the resonators that produce a vibrato sound)