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trombone

UK/ˌtɹɒmˈbəʊn/US/ˌtɹɑmˈboʊn/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,559 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: trombones

A trombone is a brass instrument whose pitch slides on a long tube. Play the trombone, a trombone solo, the trombone section.

It is the only orchestral brass instrument that changes pitch by sliding rather than by valves, which is why it can play every pitch between notes and why players learn seven positions by feel. The Italian name means a large trumpet.

Yamaha Corporation · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of trombone

  1. 1nountromboneA brass instrument played with a sliding tube.B2

    “He moved the slide of his trombone in and out as he played.”

trombone is an instrument.

Where it comes from

Italian trombone means a large trumpet, from tromba, a trumpet, plus the augmentative ending -one.

  1. Italian

    trombone

  2. English, today

    trombone

Italian trombone, from tromba + -one. The telecommunications sense alludes to the shape of the musical instrument.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

trombone in the wild

  • A sackbut is an early form of the trombone used during the Renaissance and Baroque eras.

    Sackbut

  • Records of the term trombone predate the term sackbut by two decades, and evidence for the German term Posaune is even older.

    Sackbut

  • The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family.

    Trombone

  • Nearly all trombones use a telescoping slide mechanism to alter the pitch instead of the valves used by other brass instruments.

    Trombone

  • In some quintets, the horn is replaced by an additional trombone.

    Brass quintet

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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.