Plectrum
//ˈplɛk.tɹəm// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.
"For sounds in winter nights, and often in winter days, I heard the forlorn but melodious note of a hooting owl indefinitely far; such a sound as the frozen earth would yield if struck with a suitable plectrum, the very lingua vernacula of Walden Wood, and quite familiar to me at last, though I never saw the bird while it was making it."
- 2 a small thin device (of metal or plastic or ivory) used to pluck a stringed instrument wordnet
- 3 A projection of bone or other stiff tissue, such as the ridges in some insects' stridulatory organs.
Example
More examples"Where did you put the plectrum?"
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin plēctrum, from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron, “anything to strike with, an instrument for striking the lyre, a spear point”), from πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike, to smite, to sting”).
More for "plectrum"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.