ukulele

UK/juː.kəˈleɪ.li/US/juː.kəˈleɪ.li/

nounB2+Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #10,238 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: ukuleles

A ukulele is a tiny four-stringed guitar from Hawaii. Strum a ukulele, learn the ukulele, a soprano ukulele.

Portuguese immigrants brought the instrument it descends from in 1879 and Hawaii made it its own. It is the standard instrument for beginners because the nylon strings are soft and three chords will play a great many songs. The name means jumping flea.

Definitions of ukulele

1nounukuleleA tiny four-stringed guitar from Hawaii.B2+
“He strummed a cheerful tune on his ukulele by the pool.”

ukulele is an instrument.

Where it comes from

Hawaiian ukulele means jumping flea, from uku, a flea, plus lele, to jump — said to describe the player's fingers.

Hawaiian
ʻukulele
English, today
ukulele

Built from

ʻuku · Hawaiian — flea
lele · Hawaiian — jump, jumping

Hawaiian ʻukulele, from ʻuku (“flea”) + lele (“jump, jumping”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Music & Instruments

Practise this word

ukulele in the wild

The ukulele, also called a uke (informally), is a member of the lute (ancestor of the guitar) family of instruments.
Ukulele
Brown is a blue-eyed soul and jazz singer, and ukulele and piano player.
Sam Brown (singer)
The banjo ukulele, also known as the banjolele or banjo uke, is a four-stringed musical instrument with a small banjo-type body and a fretted ukulele neck.
Banjo ukulele
Jake Shimabukuro is an American ukulele player and composer from Hawaii known for his fast and complex finger work.
Jake Shimabukuro
The orchestra features ukuleles of various sizes and registers from soprano to bass.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

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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.

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