Other forms: flutes
A flute is the thin silver instrument you hold sideways and blow across. Play the flute, a flute solo, learn the flute.
Modern concert flutes are metal despite belonging to the woodwind family, which is a classification by how the sound is made rather than what the instrument is made of. The recorder and the piccolo are relatives — the piccolo is a small flute an octave higher. A flute is also a tall narrow glass for champagne, and fluting is the vertical grooving on a classical column.
1nounfluteA woodwind instrument held sideways and blown across.
“The flute carries over the whole orchestra without trying.”
2nountallA tall narrow drinking glass.
“The waiter filled our flutes with champagne for the toast.”
flute is an instrument, or a glass.
Old French flaute is of uncertain origin, possibly imitative of the sound. The glass and the column groove are both named for the shape, taking the instrument as the original.
oc-pro-old
flaut
Old French
flaute
Middle English
fleute
English, today
flute
From Middle English fleute, floute, flote, from Old French flaute, fleüte, from oc-pro-old flaut, of unknown origin. Perhaps ultimately from three possibilities:
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA