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cornet

cornet

3 6.1
A brass instrument like a small trumpet that makes a bright sound
  • noun
  • /kɔrnɛt/
translation icon : corneta
  • He played a beautiful solo on his cornet during the concert.
  • cornet soloist

Examples

  • She'd had a crush on a cornet player in her high school marching band.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • When the time came, I chose the cornet.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • My father looked down the length of his cornet at them.

    Fiction book (1996)
  • All of the really great cornet players were Irish.

  • I distinctly remember the exact day during the next year that my mother bought me a new cornet.

    Academic text (2000)
  • He's a marvelous jazz cornet player.

  • The band sometimes also used post-horn, trumpet, and cornet.

    Academic text (2015)
  • More importantly, they helped nurture him and even loaned him the money to buy his first cornet.

    Blog text (13)
  • The group consists of a fiddler, a cornet player, a fifer, and the fourth has an upright piano.

    Fiction book (1994)
  • When Awkerman returned home to Mount Union, Pennsylvania, she contacted Captain Nissly to see if there was an opening for a cornet player.

    Academic text (2015)

Synonyms

brass instrument
vscornet
  • Specialized
1 3.4

A musical instrument played by blowing and making your lips buzz on a metal mouthpiece, like a trumpet or trombone

is a specific, narrower instrument with a slimmer tube and brighter tone

How Bright

piccolo
5 7.5
trumpet
125 2.5
cornet
3 6.1
horn
55 2.9
flugelhorn
1 8.4

Surface Forms

cornet singular
cornets plural

Etymology

The word cornet comes from the Latin cornu ('horn') plus a French small ending -et ('small'), so it originally meant 'little horn'. That's why a cornet is a small brass instrument that looks and sounds like a little trumpet.