clavichord

[ klav-i-kawrd ]

noun

1. an early keyboard instrument producing a soft sound by means of metal blades attached to the inner ends of the keys gently striking the strings.

clavichord

/ ˈklævɪˌkɔːd /

noun

1. a keyboard instrument consisting of a number of thin wire strings struck from below by brass tangents. The instrument is noted for its delicate tones, since the tangents do not rebound from the string until the key is released

Derived Forms

• ˈclaviˌchordist, noun

Other Words From

• clavi·chordist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of clavichord¹

1425–75; late Middle English < Medieval Latin clāvichordium, equivalent to Latin clāvi ( s ) key + chord ( a ) chord ² + -ium -ium

Word History and Origins

Origin of clavichord¹

C15: from Medieval Latin clāvichordium, from Latin clāvis key + chorda string, chord ¹

Example Sentences

A Clavinet looks like an electric keyboard, but it is an electro-mechanical string instrument originally developed for the performance of classical harpsichord and clavichord music.

From Salon

Technological change is in fact the subject of your favorite page, the middle page of a rondo that Bach wrote in 1781 as a farewell to his long-serving clavichord.

From New York Times

Anna Bering, the wife of the Danish maritime explorer Vitus Bering, brought a clavichord from St. Petersburg to the Sea of Okhotsk in the 1730s, traveling 6,000 miles by sleigh, boat and horse, and then brought it back again.

From New York Times

She finds new textures in her voice, and its acrobatics are less flashy and more delicate, against an intricate world conjured up out of harps, music boxes and the clavichord.

From The Guardian

Since she had been very small she had been troubled by Fernanda's strictness, her custom of deciding in favor of extremes; and she would have been capable of a much more difficult sacrifice than the clavichord lessons merely not to run up against her intransigence.

From Literature

Related Words

• grand piano
• instrument
• keyboard