wind chime
13
2.8
- noun
- /wɪnd tʃaɪm/
- Every evening, I sit on the porch and listen to the wind chime play its soft melody in the breeze.
- wind chimes tinkle
- hang wind chimes
- the tinkling of wind chimes
Examples
-
The bell, a long wind chime of white doves lined one below the other, tinkles behind him.
Fiction book (1996) -
On my way to the bathroom, I could hear the soft rattle of a wind chime on the porch.
Blog text (13) -
Then, as the wind became stronger, the musical sounds of the wind chime increased.
Blog text (13) -
In the garden, glass wind chimes tinkle.
Fiction book (1996) -
Even the wind chimes on my porch aren't moving much these days.
Fiction book (1993) -
Just above the swing there's a wind chime that clammers constantly, a sound that is burned in my memory.
Blog text (2) -
A breeze has sprung up; in the distance, Charlotte's wind chimes offer their precise, impersonal music.
Fiction book (1993) -
Hap could hear the bamboo wind chimes that hung from the porch, the deep hollow tones as they rustled in the breeze.
Fiction book (1992) -
To one side, an Arcosanti wind chime with a weathered bronze pelican clanged faintly.
Fiction book (1996) -
Shop on the boardwalk, carefully inspecting plastic paperweights with starfish frozen inside and wind chimes made of painted hot pink shells.
Blog text (4)
Synonyms
1
8.8
An instrument like a harp with many strings that the wind moves to make sound
1
3.4
A decorative thing of metal, glass or clay that hangs and makes a soft tinkling sound in wind
How Noisy
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is transparently built from 'wind' (air movement) and 'chime' (a bell-like sound), so the compound naturally denotes an object that produces chime-like sounds when moved by the wind. This straightforward noun–noun composition follows common English and cross-linguistic patterns, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can reliably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Wind chime is a simple name that tells what it does: loose pieces hang so the wind moves them and they chime, making soft tinkling sounds. So it means 'a decoration that hangs and makes soft sounds when the wind blows'.