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accordion.

A box-shaped musical instrument played by compressing or expanding its bellows while pressing its buttons or its keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel (reeds).

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/əˈkɔː.diː.ən/Received-Pronunciation[əˈkɔː.dɪi̯.ən] ~ [əˈkɔː.dɪi̯.n̩]Received-Pronunciation/əˈkoɹ.di.ən/General-American[əˈkoɹ.dɪi̯.ən] ~ [əˈkoɹ.dɪi̯.n̩]General-American

  1. A box-shaped musical instrument played by compressing or expanding its bellows while pressing its buttons or its keys, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel (reeds).

  2. A vertical list of items that can be individually expanded and collapsed to reveal their contents.

  3. Something, or set of things (concepts, etc), which can be expanded (or extended) and collapsed, like the musical instrument's pleated, folding bellows.

    attributive · figuratively
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Old Latin com Latin cum Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr ~ *ḱr̥dés Proto-Italic *kord Latin cor Latin concors Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin concordāreder. Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad-der. Vulgar Latin *accordāre Old French acorder Middle French accorder French accorderdeverb. French accordbor. German Akkord German -ion German Akkordeonbor. English accordion First attested in 1831. Borrowed from German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.

verb/əˈkɔː.diː.ən/Received-Pronunciation[əˈkɔː.dɪi̯.ən] ~ [əˈkɔː.dɪi̯.n̩]Received-Pronunciation/əˈkoɹ.di.ən/General-American[əˈkoɹ.dɪi̯.ən] ~ [əˈkoɹ.dɪi̯.n̩]General-American

  1. To fold up, in the manner of an accordion

    intransitive · transitive
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Old Latin com Latin cum Proto-Indo-European *ḱerd- Proto-Indo-European *ḱḗr ~ *ḱr̥dés Proto-Italic *kord Latin cor Latin concors Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin concordāreder. Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Proto-Italic *ad- Latin ad-der. Vulgar Latin *accordāre Old French acorder Middle French accorder French accorderdeverb. French accordbor. German Akkord German -ion German Akkordeonbor. English accordion First attested in 1831. Borrowed from German Akkordeon, from Akkord (“harmony”), from French accord, from Old French acorder, based on Italian accordare (“to tune”). See also accord.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.