Cavaquinho

//kavaˈkiːnjuː// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A small guitar-string instrument of Portuguese origin, with four wire or gut strings, played with a plectrum.

    "One person came back with a guitar, another with a Brazilian-style ukulele called a cavaquinho, and a third with a tambourine and a tantam drum with a long, thick neck."

Example

More examples

"One person came back with a guitar, another with a Brazilian-style ukulele called a cavaquinho, and a third with a tambourine and a tantam drum with a long, thick neck."

Etymology

Borrowed from Portuguese cavaquinho, from the diminutive of cavaco (“fragment of wood”).

Related phrases

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