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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

lyre.

An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈlaɪ.ə/UK/lɑə̯ ~ lɑː/UK/ˈlaɪ.ɚ/US/laɪɹ/US
  1. An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.

  2. An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke. Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.

  3. A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.

  4. A composer of lyric poetry.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lire (13th c.), from Old French lire, from Latin lyra, from Ancient Greek λύρᾱ (lúrā, “lyre, a stringed instrument with a sounding-board formed of the shell of a tortoise”). Doublet of lira, lyra, and Lyra.

verb/ˈlaɪ.ə/UK/lɑə̯ ~ lɑː/UK/ˈlaɪ.ɚ/US/laɪɹ/US
  1. to play the lyre

    rare
Where this word comes from

From Middle English lire (13th c.), from Old French lire, from Latin lyra, from Ancient Greek λύρᾱ (lúrā, “lyre, a stringed instrument with a sounding-board formed of the shell of a tortoise”). Doublet of lira, lyra, and Lyra.

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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.