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Glite Dictionary
bones

bones

19 8.7
Two small curved pieces of wood or bone that you click together to make a rhythm
  • noun
  • /boʊnz/
translation icon : huesos
  • Bones are subjected to severe, repetitive stress by activities such as running long distances on unforgiving surfaces.

Examples

  • At the folk festival, the dancers moved energetically while the bones rattled in the background.

  • The musician skillfully clicked the bones together to create a lively rhythm.

  • Bones, tools, and other artifacts associated with the coffins were found about one foot down.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Bones of many a fine sailor at the bottom of this ocean, but no men finer than Dook and Charlie.

    In Like Flynn (2018)

  • During the performance, the crowd clapped along as the players used their bones to keep the beat.

Synonyms

finger cymbals
vsbones
1 7.3

A pair of small metal discs worn on the fingers and tapped to make a bright ring used in dance

are handheld hollow pieces clicked together to make a sharp wooden sound
clappers
vsbones
7.9

Two pieces of wood or bone that you click together to make rhythm

is used more broadly in traditional and folk music rather than mainly dance
castanets
vsbones
8.3

A pair of small wooden pieces clicked in the hands to make a sharp sound

is used across many traditional and folk styles not only for Spanish dance

Surface Forms

bone singular
bones plural

Morphology

bones = bone (semi-transparent) = bone + s

The form is clearly 'bone' + plural -s, but the specialized meaning 'a pair of bones used as a percussion instrument' is conventionalized and not fully predictable for learners.

Etymology

Bones for the small musical instrument comes from the simple word bone, because players long ago used real animal bones and clicked them together to make a 'beat'. That's why today bones still means a pair of thin pieces you click together to make music.