guitar
A fretted string instrument played by plucking or strumming, typically with six strings.
In Depth
The guitar overtook the piano as the world's most popular instrument in the 1960s and has held that position ever since, with an estimated 50 million guitarists worldwide.
Related Terms
More in Instruments
Browse allA portable reed instrument with a bellows, keys, and buttons.
The accordion family includes the piano accordion, button accordion, concertina, and bandoneon — all free-reed instruments powered by hand-operated bellows.
A guitar that produces sound naturally through its hollow wooden body without electronic amplification.
A Javanese and Sundanese instrument made of bamboo tubes mounted in a frame, shaken to produce notes.
A small, hexagonal free-reed instrument with buttons on both sides, producing different notes on push and pull of the bellows, central to Irish and English traditional music.
A chorded zither with damper bars that mute unwanted strings, allowing the player to strum full chords with one hand while pressing chord buttons with the other.
A wind instrument using enclosed reeds fed by a constant air supply from a bag.
A West African wooden xylophone with gourd resonators, central to the music of the Mandinka people.