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saxophone.

A single-reed instrument musical instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and with a distinctive loop bringing the bell upwards.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈsæksəˌfəʊ̯n/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsæksəˌfoʊ̯n/General-American
  1. A single-reed instrument musical instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and with a distinctive loop bringing the bell upwards.

    I played the saxophone in high school.
  2. Someone who plays the saxophone; a saxophonist.

    The saxophones typically sit behind the flutes in a concert band.
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French saxophone, a combination of the surname of its inventor Adolphe Sax (1814–1894) + -o- + -phone (“something that makes a sound”), from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”). The first element surname is a variant of the German Sachs (“Saxon”). Analyzable as Sax + -o- + -phone.

verb/ˈsæksəˌfəʊ̯n/Received-Pronunciation/ˈsæksəˌfoʊ̯n/General-American
  1. To play the saxophone.

Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French saxophone, a combination of the surname of its inventor Adolphe Sax (1814–1894) + -o- + -phone (“something that makes a sound”), from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”). The first element surname is a variant of the German Sachs (“Saxon”). Analyzable as Sax + -o- + -phone.

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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.