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tuba

UK/ˈtjuː.bə/US/ˈtu.bə/
nounB2Common in everyday speech and writing · #7,707 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: tubas

A tuba is the largest and lowest brass instrument. Play the tuba, a tuba solo, the tuba part.

It carries the bass line of a band or an orchestra and holds the whole harmony up from underneath, which is why the part looks dull on the page and is not. There are five or six metres of tubing coiled up in one. The Latin tuba was a straight war trumpet.

Yamaha Corporation · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of tuba

  1. 1nountubaThe largest and lowest brass instrument.B2

    “The tuba played the low notes that kept the band in time.”

tuba is an instrument.

Where it comes from

Latin tuba named a straight trumpet used by the Roman army. The modern instrument was patented in Berlin in 1835.

  1. Latin

    tuba — tube, trumpet, military trumpet

  2. Italian

    tuba — tuba

  3. German

    Tuba — tuba

  4. French

    tuba — tuba

  5. English, today

    tuba

Built from

  • tībia · Latin — shinbone, reed-pipe

Borrowed in the 19th century from French tuba (“tuba”), German Tuba (“tuba”), originally Baß-Tuba literally “bass tuba”, or Italian tuba (“tuba”), from Latin tuba (“tube, trumpet, military trumpet”). The Latin term is of obscure ultimate origin, but is possibly connected to tībia (“shinbone, reed-pipe”); see there.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

tuba in the wild

  • The tuba usually has four or five valves, although some models have three or six.

    Tuba

  • The tuba evolved through the 19th century as valves improved, and other makers contributed new designs and sizes.

    Tuba

  • The Wagner tuba is a four-valve brass instrument commissioned by and named after Richard Wagner.

    Wagner tuba

  • Tuba Sounds is the debut album by tuba player Ray Draper recorded in 1957 and released on the Prestige label.

    Tuba Sounds

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.