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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

plectrum.

A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.

8 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈplɛk.tɹəm/
  1. A small piece of plastic, metal, ivory, etc., for plucking the strings of a guitar, lyre, mandolin, etc.

  2. A projection of bone or other stiff tissue, such as the ridges in some insects' stridulatory organs.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Latin plēctrum, from Ancient Greek πλῆκτρον (plêktron, “anything to strike with, an instrument for striking the lyre, a spear point”), from πλήσσειν (plḗssein, “to strike, to smite, to sting”). Displaced native Old English sleġel.

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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.