xylophone

Everyday

A xylophone is a musical instrument made of a row of wooden bars of different lengths that you hit with small hammers called beaters or mallets; each bar plays a different note. tree →

In the lessons

In music lessons it is a common classroom percussion instrument. In science lessons it shows that shorter bars make higher notes and longer bars make lower notes. It is also the classic "X" word in alphabet books. Phrases: play the xylophone, xylophone beaters.

Examples

• I played a tune on the xylophone in music. tree →
• The shortest bar on the xylophone makes the highest note. tree →
• X is for xylophone. tree →
• Hit the bars gently with the beaters. tree →
• The orchestra's xylophone player sat with the drummers. tree →
• A glockenspiel looks like a xylophone but has metal bars. tree →

Note

Countable. Said ZY-lo-fone: the x sounds like z. From Greek xylon (wood) + phone (sound). Trap: a toy with metal bars is really a glockenspiel or metallophone, not a xylophone.