Lyre

//ˈlaɪ.ɚ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.
  2. 2
    a harp used by ancient Greeks for accompaniment wordnet
  3. 3
    An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.; Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.
  4. 4
    A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.
  5. 5
    A composer of lyric poetry. obsolete
Verb
  1. 1
    to play the lyre rare

    "Alas, far times ago / A woman lyred here / In the evenfall; one who fain did so / From year to year; / And, in loneliness bending wistfully, / Would wake each note / In sick sad rote, / None to listen or see!"

Synonyms

All synonyms
harpyoke luteyoke lute

Example

More examples

"Echo was brought up by the Nymphs, and the Muses taught her to play upon the pipe, the flute, the lyre, and the harp, in fact, to excel in every kind of music."

Etymology

From Ancient Greek λύρᾱ (lúrā, “lyre, a stringed instrument with a sounding-board formed of the shell of a tortoise”). Doublet of lira, Lyra, and lyra.

Related phrases

bell lyrelyre snakelyre spongelyre-guitarlyre-tailedalmost liremedieval guitarmusic instrumentmusical instrumentold instrumentyoke lute

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