Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Zither

Definition: Zither

Zither

Noun

1. A musical stringed instrument with strings stretch over a flat sounding box; played with a plectrum and with fingers.

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "zither" was first used: 1850. (references)

Etymology: Zither \Zith"er\, noun. [from German expression zither. See Cittern.]. (references)


Specialty Definition: Zither

DomainDefinition

Fine Arts

These instruments have a flat sound-box of approximately trapezoidal shape, and a large number of strings usually of metal. Source: European Union. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Specialty Definition: Zither

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

The zither is a musical string instrument, mainly used in folk music. The strings are stretched across the length of the soundbox, and the instrument does not have a neck.

Examples:

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Zither."

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Synonyms: Zither

Synonyms: cither (n), zithern (n). (additional references)

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Crosswords: Zither

English words defined with "zither": dulcimerkotopsaltery. (references)
Non-English Usage: "Zither" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses.

German (zither, zithers), Italian (zither).

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Modern Usage: Zither

DomainUsage

Tongue Twisters

Is this your sister's sixth zither, sir? (references; author: unknown)

This is a zither. Is this a zither? (references; author: unknown)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Zither

DomainTitle

Books

  • A Chinese Zither Tutor: The Mei-an Ch'in-p'u (reference)

  • Celestial Airs of Antiquity: Music of the Seven-String Zither of China (Recent Researches in the Oral Traditions of Music Series Vol Rr05) (reference)

  • Guide to L.A. Music Teachers 1994: Your One-Stop Source for Finding Music Instruction in Every Category, from Accordion to Zither (reference)

  • Method for Zither (reference)

  • The piano : its story from zither to grand (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Image Slideshow: Zither

Illustrations:
Zither

More pictures...

Computer Images:
Zither

More pictures...

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Usage Frequency: Zither

"Zither" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Zither" is used about 15 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Noun (singular)100%1590,616

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Zither

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

zither

81

string zither

4

german zither

4

music zither

4

chinese zither

4

picture zither

4

pin zither

3

sale zither

3

mp3 zither

3

harp zither

2

guitar zither

2
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Zither

Language Translations for "zither"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Albanian

  

qestër. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏القانون آلة موسيقية. (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

цитра. (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

古筝 (zithern). (various references)

   

Czech

  

citera. (various references)

   

Danish

  

zither (cither), citer (cither). (various references)

   

Dutch

  

citer (cither). (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

citro. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

نوعی سنتوریاقانون(مو.). (various references)

   

Finnish

  

sitra. (various references)

   

French

  

cithare. (various references)

   

German

  

Zither (zithers). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

σαντούρι (cither, cymbalom, cymbalon or dulcimer, czimbal, czimbalo, czimbalom, czimbalon). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

citera. (various references)

   

Italian

  

zither, cetra tirolese, cetra (cithara). (various references)

   

Manx

  

sittyr. (various references)

   

Norwegian

  

sitar. (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

itherzay

   

Portuguese

  

cítara (cither). (various references)

   

Russian 

  

цитра. (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

citra (cither, cittern). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

cítara. (various references)

   

Swedish

  

cittra (cither, cittern, gittern). (various references)

   

Thai

  

เครื่อง"นตรีประเ ทพิ". (various references)

   

Turkish

  

kanuna benzer bir çalgı. (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

цитра. (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

đ n tam thập lục (zithern). (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Zither

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Greek700 BCE-300 CE

kithara. (various references)

Latin500 BCE-Modern

cithara. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Zither

Derivations

Words beginning with "zither": zitherist, zitherists, zithern, zitherns, zithers. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Zither" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aither, ither, Izhar, Sibthorp, sithee, Zaehner, Zehrer, zipher, zite, ziter, zithe, zithen, zitte, Zoehrer, Zohar. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Zither"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "zither" (pronounced zi"ther)
3-i" th erdither, hither, slither, whither, wither.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Zither

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "e-h-i-r-t-z"

-1 letter: hertz, ither, their.

-2 letters: heir, hire, rite, ritz, thir, tier, tire.

-3 letters: eth, her, het, hie, hit, ire, rei, ret, the, tie, zit.

-4 letters: eh, er, et, he, hi, it, re, ti.

 Words containing the letters "e-h-i-r-t-z"
 

+1 letter: zithern, zithers.

 

+2 letters: etherize, howitzer, theorize, yahrzeit, zitherns.

 

+3 letters: authorize, chintzier, etherized, etherizer, etherizes, gigahertz, howitzers, kilohertz, rheumatiz, rhythmize, rightsize, theorized, theorizer, theorizes, yahrzeits, zitherist.

 

+4 letters: authorized, authorizer, authorizes, catechizer, czarevitch, etherizers, etherizing, graphitize, mythicizer, prizefight, rhythmized, rhythmizes, rightsized, rightsizes, shmaltzier, theorizers, theorizing, thermalize, trichinize, weatherize, zitherists.

 

+5 letters: achromatize, authorizers, catechizers, catheterize, etherealize, graphitized, graphitizes, historicize, mythicizers, prizefights, reauthorize, rehypnotize, rheumatizes, rhizotomies, schmaltzier, sympathizer, synthesizer, theologizer, thermalized, thermalizes, trichinized, trichinizes, trophozoite, weatherized, weatherizes.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Slideshow
7. Usage Frequency
8. Expressions: Internet
9. Translations: Modern
10. Translations: Ancient
11. Derivations
12. Rhymes
13. Anagrams
14. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.