What does "pianola" mean?

A mechanical piano which uses a roll of perforated paper to operate its keys, instead of being played by a pianist.

How do you pronounce "pianola"?

Pronounced //pi.əˈnəʊlə//.

Common synonyms include: player piano, mechanical piano, mechanical piano, music roll, player piano.

//pi.əˈnəʊlə// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A mechanical piano which uses a roll of perforated paper to operate its keys, instead of being played by a pianist.
2
a mechanically operated piano that uses a roll of perforated paper to activate the keys wordnet
3
A hand that is easy to play, i.e. one that "plays itself".

From piano + -ola.

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