Illustration of banjo
banjo
noun
ban·jo
ˈban-(ˌ)jō 
plural banjos also banjoes
: a musical instrument with a drumlike body, a fretted neck, and usually four or five strings which may be plucked or strummed
Examples of banjo in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Advertisement Born in West Palm Beach, Fla., Betts proved a fast study on guitar, banjo and other instruments.
—
August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024
Walker sings and plays the fiddle, banjo, guitar and harmonica for the band, which operates out of Brooklyn, New York.
—Jessica Booth, Peoplemag, 9 Apr. 2024
And yet, for the back half of the 1970s, Martin virtually was stand-up comedy — a guy in a white suit, with prematurely gray hair, who somehow managed to turn a club set involving banjo solos, balloon animals and 10 tons of irony into a cultural phenomena.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 1 Apr. 2024
After seeing The East Pointers at Woodford, Flynn came across Scahill’s banjo video lessons on Patreon and took off with it.
—Lori Nickel, Journal Sentinel, 7 Mar. 2024
There’s something earthy about Rogers’s presence (she was brought up in rural Maryland, and played the harp and the banjo as a teen-ager), yet the song’s production is spectral, icy, electronic.
—Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024
What's more, the banjo was prominently featured in degrading blackface minstrel shows.
—Aaron Cohen, NPR, 5 Apr. 2024
Prince Naveen was shown plucking a banjo, his eyes rolling and blinking in time with his strumming.
—Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2024
In the documentary, which spawned a Billboard chart-topping soundtrack titled Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns, there is an extensive exploration of the African roots of the banjo and how pivotal the instrument was, in addition to Black and Mexican musicians, in cultivating the genre.
—Kyle Denis, Billboard, 3 Apr. 2024
August Brown, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2024
Walker sings and plays the fiddle, banjo, guitar and harmonica for the band, which operates out of Brooklyn, New York.
—Jessica Booth, Peoplemag, 9 Apr. 2024
And yet, for the back half of the 1970s, Martin virtually was stand-up comedy — a guy in a white suit, with prematurely gray hair, who somehow managed to turn a club set involving banjo solos, balloon animals and 10 tons of irony into a cultural phenomena.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 1 Apr. 2024
After seeing The East Pointers at Woodford, Flynn came across Scahill’s banjo video lessons on Patreon and took off with it.
—Lori Nickel, Journal Sentinel, 7 Mar. 2024
There’s something earthy about Rogers’s presence (she was brought up in rural Maryland, and played the harp and the banjo as a teen-ager), yet the song’s production is spectral, icy, electronic.
—Amanda Petrusich, The New Yorker, 8 Apr. 2024
What's more, the banjo was prominently featured in degrading blackface minstrel shows.
—Aaron Cohen, NPR, 5 Apr. 2024
Prince Naveen was shown plucking a banjo, his eyes rolling and blinking in time with his strumming.
—Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, 4 Apr. 2024
In the documentary, which spawned a Billboard chart-topping soundtrack titled Country Music: A Film by Ken Burns, there is an extensive exploration of the African roots of the banjo and how pivotal the instrument was, in addition to Black and Mexican musicians, in cultivating the genre.
—Kyle Denis, Billboard, 3 Apr. 2024
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'banjo.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near banjo
Cite this Entry
“Banjo.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/banjo. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share