# qanun

Pronunciation: say "kuh-NOON" US /kəˈnun/, UK /kəˈnuːn/

## Noun

1. A stringed instrument of the Near East and the Caucasus, related to the zither, dulcimer, or harp, with either 26 strings and one bridge or 42 strings and two bridges.
   - Simple: A music instrument with many strings, from the Near East and the Caucasus, a bit like a harp.
   - _The qanun player plucked a rippling introduction before the oud and drums came in._
   - _She spent three years learning the qanun before joining the city's classical Arabic orchestra._

## Origin

From Turkish kanun, from Ottoman Turkish قانون (kanun), from Arabic قَانُون (qānūn), from Ancient Greek κανών (kanṓn). It is a doublet of canon.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/qanun (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).