oboe
oboe Lexical Profile
oboe Game Scores & Validity
• noun
A slender woodwind instrument with a conical bore and a double-reed mouthpiece, distinguished by its penetrating, somewhat nasal or plaintive tone.
"She tuned the rest of the orchestra by playing a perfectly pitched A on her oboe."
An organ reed stop designed to produce a tone resembling that of the orchestral woodwind instrument of the same name.
"The organist engaged the oboe stop to highlight the melody during the contemplative middle section of the hymn."
Word Nuance & Usage
Frequently confused visually and aurally with the clarinet, which uses a single reed instead of a double reed, and the English horn, a slightly larger and lower-pitched member of the same instrument family.
• Rhymes for oboe
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed into English in the 18th century from the Italian 'oboe', which was a phonetic adaptation of the French word 'hautbois', literally meaning 'high wood' or 'loud wood' (from 'haut' meaning high/loud and 'bois' meaning wood).
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.