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musical instrument

musical instrument

21 2.3
A thing like a piano or guitar that you play to make music
  • noun
  • /ˈmjuːzɪkəl ˈɪnstrʊmənt/
translation icon : instrumento musical
  • Many children learn to play a musical instrument in school, such as the trumpet or violin.
  • play musical instruments
  • learn to play musical instruments
  • perform on a musical instrument

Lustre doesn't play any musical instrument at all.

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Examples

  • He also plays a variety of musical instruments.

  • The guitar has been the defining musical instrument in American popular music for the past six decades.

    Academic text (2011)
  • Okay, now, how many of you have played musical instruments before?

  • - We have given you a musical instrument.

  • We need a society for the protection of musical instruments!

  • Or we play the musical instruments that we have at home and sing together.

    Academic text (2013)
  • Anyone who has ever played a musical instrument knows this sequence.

  • The classical acoustic guitar is, in some ways, a perfect musical instrument.

    Academic text (2011)
  • I didn't know you played a musical instrument.

  • In the music class, my child touched musical instruments; he listened to music that I didn't listen to.

    Academic text (2013)

Synonyms

instrument
vsmusical instrument
184 1.9

An object like a piano or violin that makes musical sounds

is the same meaning but uses a fuller phrase explicitly about music

How Loud

pipe organ
4 5.3
trumpet
125 2.5
musical instrument
21 2.3
violin
159 1.8
recorder
7 3.2
toy
1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

musical + instrument

The meaning 'an object used for producing musical sounds' is directly and compositionally derived from 'musical' (related to music) + 'instrument' (a device), following a common adjective + noun pattern. This construction is cross-linguistically regular and would be immediately understandable to an average B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Musical instrument began as a clear idea: musical means about music and instrument was an old word for a simple 'tool'. So a musical instrument is literally a 'tool' used 'to make music', which is why it now means an object that produces musical sounds.