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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

tambour.

A small shallow drum.

7 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈtæmbʊə(ɹ)/

  1. A small shallow drum.

    countable · uncountable

  2. A small shallow drum. A drummer.

    countable · uncountable

  3. A circular frame for embroidery.

    countable · uncountable

  4. A rich kind of gold and silver embroidery.

    countable · uncountable

  5. Silk or other material embroidered on a tambour.

    countable · uncountable

  6. The capital of a Corinthian column.

    countable · uncountable

  7. Synonym of drum (“cylindrical stone in the shaft of a column”).

    countable · uncountable

  8. A work usually in the form of a redan, to enclose a space before a door or staircase, or at the gorge of a larger work. It is arranged like a stockade.

    countable · uncountable

  9. A shallow metallic cup or drum, with a thin elastic membrane supporting a writing lever. Two or more of these are connected by a rubber tube and used to transmit and register the movements of the pulse or of any pulsating artery.

    countable · uncountable

  10. In real tennis, a buttress-like obstruction in the main wall.

    countable · uncountable

  11. A rolling top or front (as of a rolltop desk) of narrow strips of wood glued on canvas.

    countable · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French tambour (“drum”), from Arabic طُنْبُور (ṭunbūr), from the Middle Persian ancestor of Classical Persian تنبور (tanbūr). Doublet of tabor and tanbur. Compare Armenian տաւիղ (tawiġ), and tabla.

verb/ˈtæmbʊə(ɹ)/

  1. To embroider on a tambour (circular frame).

    ambitransitive
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French tambour (“drum”), from Arabic طُنْبُور (ṭunbūr), from the Middle Persian ancestor of Classical Persian تنبور (tanbūr). Doublet of tabor and tanbur. Compare Armenian տաւիղ (tawiġ), and tabla.

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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.