LUTE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does lute mean? 

• LUTE (noun)
  The noun LUTE has 2 senses:

1. a substance for packing a joint or coating a porous surface to make it impervious to gas or liquid

2. chordophone consisting of a plucked instrument having a pear-shaped body, a usually bent neck, and a fretted fingerboard

  Familiarity information: LUTE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LUTE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A substance for packing a joint or coating a porous surface to make it impervious to gas or liquid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting substances

Synonyms:

lute; luting

Hypernyms ("lute" is a kind of...):

sealing material (any substance used to seal joints or fill cracks in a porous surface)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Chordophone consisting of a plucked instrument having a pear-shaped body, a usually bent neck, and a fretted fingerboard

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("lute" is a kind of...):

chordophone (a stringed instrument of the group including harps, lutes, lyres, and zithers)

Meronyms (parts of "lute"):

fingerboard (a narrow strip of wood on the neck of some stringed instruments (violin or cello or guitar etc) where the strings are held against the wood with the fingers)

Derivation:

lutanist; lutenist; lutist (a musician who plays the lute)

 Context examples 

Not tables, toilettes, wardrobes, or drawers, but on one side perhaps the remains of a broken lute, on the other a ponderous chest which no efforts can open, and over the fireplace the portrait of some handsome warrior, whose features will so incomprehensibly strike you, that you will not be able to withdraw your eyes from it.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)