noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A musical instrument in the woodwind family, having a double reed and playing in the tenor and bass ranges.

   "Higher and higher every day, / Till over the mast at noon— / The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast, / For he heard the loud bassoon."

2. 2
   a double-reed instrument; the tenor of the oboe family wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To play the bassoon.
2. 2
   To make a bassoon-like sound.

Synonyms

All synonyms

aulosbasset hornbasset oboeblock flutebombardbourdon

Example

More examples

"When translating into English, the German word for "bassoon" is a stumbling block."

Etymology

Borrowed from French basson.

Related phrases

French bassoonsausage bassoondouble reedmusical instrument

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.