stringed instrument, any musical instrument whose tone is produced by vibrating strings. Those whose strings are plucked with the finger or a plectrum include the balalaika balalaika (băləlī`kə)
..... Click the link for more information. , banjo banjo, stringed musical instrument, with a body resembling a tambourine. The banjo consists of a hoop over which a skin membrane is stretched; it has a long, often fretted neck and four to nine strings, which are plucked with a pick or the fingers.
..... Click the link for more information. , guitar guitar, musical instrument related to the lute, modern guitars normally having six strings that are plucked with the fingers or strummed with a pick. Earlier versions had pairs of strings like the lute.
..... Click the link for more information. , harp harp, stringed musical instrument of ancient origin, the strings of which are plucked with the fingers. Harps were found in paintings from the 13th cent. B.C. at Thebes. In different forms it was played by peoples of nearly all lands throughout the ages.
..... Click the link for more information. , lute lute, musical instrument that has a half-pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and a variable number of strings, which are plucked with the fingers. The long lute, with its neck much longer than its body, seems to have been older than the short lute, existing very early
..... Click the link for more information. , mandolin mandolin (măn'dəlĭn`, măn`dəlĭn')
..... Click the link for more information. , zither zither (zĭth`ər), stringed musical instrument, derived from the psaltery and the dulcimer .
..... Click the link for more information. , the sitar sitar (sĭtär`), fretted string instrument with a gourdlike body and a long neck, similar to the lute.
..... Click the link for more information. of India and Pakistan, the koto koto (kō`tō), a Japanese string instrument related in structure to the zither .
..... Click the link for more information. of Japan, and countless others. Those plucked by means of a keyboard include the harpsichord and spinet spinet, musical instrument of the harpsichord family. Although the terms virginal and spinet, interchangeable until the end of the 17th cent., were sometimes used indiscriminately to designate any harpsichord, they usually referred to small instruments
..... Click the link for more information. . Those played with the bow are principally of the viol viol, family of bowed stringed instruments, the most important ensemble instruments from the 15th to the 17th cent. The viol's early history is indefinite, but it is recognizable in depictions from as early as the 11th cent. During the second half of the 17th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. and violin families, the kemence of Turkey and Central Asia, the rebab of the Arab world and the many varieties of spike fiddle in Indonesia, Central Asia and elsewhere. Instruments whose strings are struck include the dulcimer dulcimer (dŭl`sĭmər), stringed musical instrument.
..... Click the link for more information. of Europe and America, the santur of Iran, Iraq and other countries, and several keyboard instruments, among them the piano piano or pianoforte, musical instrument whose sound is produced by vibrating strings struck by felt hammers that are controlled from a keyboard.

The piano's earliest predecessor was the dulcimer . The first piano was made c.
..... Click the link for more information. and clavichord clavichord (klăv`ĭkôrd), keyboard musical instrument invented in the Middle Ages.
..... Click the link for more information. .

stringed instrument

Any musical instrument that produces sound by the vibrations of strings. The strings may be of gut, metal, fibre, or plastic, and may be plucked, bowed, or struck. The orchestral stringed instruments include the violin, viola, cello, double bass, and harp. Keyboard stringed instruments include the clavichord, harpsichord, piano, and virginal. See also Aeolian harp; balalaika; dulcimer; guitar; kithara; koto; lute; lyre; mandolin; pipa; sitar; 'ud; ukulele; viol; zither.