vibraphone

vi·bra·phone

noun \ˈvī-brə-ˌfōn\

: an electronic musical instrument which has metal bars that you hit with small wooden hammers to play notes and which has a motor that makes the notes vibrate

Full Definition of VIBRAPHONE

:  a percussion instrument resembling the xylophone but having metal bars and motor-driven resonators for sustaining the tone and producing a vibrato

— vi·bra·phon·ist \-ˌfō-nist\ noun

Illustration of VIBRAPHONE

Origin of VIBRAPHONE

Latin vibrare + International Scientific Vocabulary -phone

First Known Use: 1926

Rhymes with VIBRAPHONE

acetone, allophone, altar stone, anglophone, anklebone, barbitone, baritone, bombardon, brain hormone, buffer zone, Canal Zone, cannon bone, cherrystone, cinder cone, cobblestone, coffin bone, collarbone, comfort zone, cornerstone, cortisone, crazy bone, crumple zone, curling stone, cuttlebone, demand loan, diaphone, Dictaphone, ecotone, epigone, fracture zone, francophone, frigid zone, frontal bone, funny bone, gramophone, growth hormone, hammerstone, herringbone, hold one's own, holystone, homophone, hydrophone, ice-cream cone, ironstone, kidney stone, knucklebone, leading tone, leave alone, let alone, lithopone, marrowbone, megaphone, mellophone, methadone, microphone, microtone, minestrone, monotone, neutral zone, on one's own, overblown, overgrown, overtone, plant hormone, polyphone, prednisone, provolone, quarter tone, rotenone, rottenstone, sacaton, saxophone, semitone, sex hormone, shacklebone, shatter cone, silicone, sousaphone, speakerphone, stand-alone, stepping-stone, telephone, temperate zone, temporal bone, thunderstone, Torreón, torrid zone, traffic cone, twilight zone, undertone, Yellowstone

vibraphone

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Percussion instrument with tuned metal bars, arranged keyboard-style like the xylophone. Felt or wool beaters are used to strike the bars, giving a soft, mellow tone quality. Each bar has a resonating tube suspended vertically below it to sustain the tone; small electrically powered spinning disks at the top of the resonators produce a vibrato effect by rapidly closing and opening the resonators. Invented c. 1920, it soon became a popular jazz instrument.

Variants of VIBRAPHONE

vibraphone or vibraharp