What does "contrabassoon" mean?

A larger version of the bassoon sounding one octave lower, having a technique similar to the bassoon but offers more resistance in every way.

Contrabassoon

Q: What is a synonym for "contrabassoon"?

Common synonyms include: contrafagotto, double bassoon, bassoon, clarinet, contrafagotto, double bassoon.

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1
A larger version of the bassoon sounding one octave lower, having a technique similar to the bassoon but offers more resistance in every way.
2
the bassoon that is the largest instrument in the oboe family wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

contrafagotto double bassoon bassoon clarinet contrafagotto double bassoon

Example

More examples

"She really had to stretch her imagination to squeeze enough material for a solo album out of a contrabassoon, but by God, she did."

Etymology

Semi-anglicized version of Italian contrafagotto, probably following the model of the English word contrabass (which derives from Italian contrabbasso).

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