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lyre

Pronunciation: /ˈlaɪ.ə/

The English word “lyre” has 5 meanings listed here.

noun

  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. Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.
  3. A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.
  4. A composer of lyric poetry.

verb

  1. to play the lyre

Etymology

From Middle English lire (13th c.), from Old French lire, from Latin lyra, 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.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.