Other forms: strumming, strummed, strums
To strum is to sweep across the strings with the hand. Strum a guitar, strumming pattern, strummed softly.
It sounds all the strings together where picking sounds them separately, which is the whole difference in guitar technique — a strumming pattern is about the rhythm of the hand rather than the notes. It can be done with fingers or a plectrum. Note that the word is a variant of thrum and is imitative.
1verbstrumTo sweep across the strings with the hand.
“He sat by the fire, strumming his guitar and singing softly.”
strum is a way of playing.
Strum is a variant of thrum, and both imitate the sound of a string being sounded.
Variant of thrum.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA