noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A kind of three-stringed Japanese fretless lute.
2. 2
   a Japanese stringed instrument resembling a banjo with a long neck and three strings and a fretless fingerboard and a rectangular soundbox; played with a plectrum wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

jabisenjamisenjamisensamisensamisensangen

Example

More examples

"She originated a new way of playing jazz on the shamisen."

Etymology

From Japanese 三味線 (shamisen).

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