guitar

Pluralguitars

Formsguitars, guitaring, guitared

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A stringed instrument that originated in Europe, typically with six strings and a fretted fingerboard, played by plucking or strumming with the fingers or a pick.

   He tuned his guitar carefully before stepping onto the stage.

   Classical guitars are usually strung with nylon rather than steel.

   Note

   The word reached English from Spanish guitarra, which came through Arabic qīṯāra from Ancient Greek kithara. That long journey makes it a doublet of cithara, cither and zither: four English words with one Greek source. In everyday use it usually takes the definite article after play or strum (strum the guitar). It also forms open compounds such as guitar player and guitar pick, the plainer name for a plectrum.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   Any instrument of the lute family, marked by a flat back and a neck whose upper surface lies in the same plane as the soundboard, with strings running parallel to it.

   Specialists treat the flat back and level neck as the defining traits of any guitar.

   Structurally, the Portuguese cavaquinho is a small guitar with only four strings.

   Note

   This is an instrument-maker's category rather than a single instrument. It names a whole branch of the lute family, defined by how the instrument is built, not by its number of strings or its name. A flat back and a neck level with the soundboard are enough to qualify, so many differently named relatives fall inside it. In ordinary talk, the familiar six-string instrument is what the word means. This broader use belongs to specialist writing.

3. 3
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To play music on the guitar.

   The two friends guitar together every Friday in the garage.

   She guitared for hours after dinner, completely lost in the music.

   Note

   Turning the instrument into a verb is a playful move, and it suits lively, informal prose. Becky Manawatu's Auē (2020) has "We guitared and drummed and head banged and pianoed," which puts guitar alongside drum and piano as things one simply does. The verb inflects regularly: guitars, guitaring, guitared. In neutral writing, play the guitar remains the safer choice.

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