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accordion

UK/əˈkɔː.diː.ən/US/əˈkoɹ.di.ən/
nounB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,287 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: accordions

An accordion is the squeezebox instrument pumped between two hands. Play the accordion, a button accordion, the accordion wheezed.

The bellows drive air over metal reeds, and pushing and pulling can give different notes depending on the type. It carries a whole continent of folk music, from France to Argentina to Ireland. The name comes from the German for a chord.

Necz0r · CC BY-SA 3.0

Definitions of accordion

  1. 1nounaccordionA bellows instrument played with both hands.B1+

    “An old man was playing the accordion on the street corner.”

accordion is an instrument.

Where it comes from

German Akkordeon comes from Akkord, a chord, from French accord. The instrument was patented in Vienna in 1829.

  1. German

    Akkordeon

  2. English, today

    accordion

Built from

  • Akkord · German — harmony

Borrowed from German Akkordeon. First attested in 1831. German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music, Art & Culture

Practise this word

accordion in the wild

  • The accordion belongs to the free-reed aerophone family.

    Accordion

  • The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor.

    Accordion

  • The bayan is a type of chromatic button accordion developed in the Russian Empire in the early 20th century and named after the 11th-century bard Boyan.

    Bayan (accordion)

  • The garmon, commonly called garmoshka, is a kind of Russian button accordion, a free-reed wind instrument.

    Garmon

  • The diatonic button accordion itself was devised in Vienna in 1829, expanding thereafter all over Europe.

    Trikiti

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • accordion keys