concertina
/ˌkɑnsɚˈtinə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.27 in modern English
14
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A musical instrument, like the various accordions, that is a member of the free-reed family of musical instruments, typically having buttons on both ends.
noun
Something multiply folded like a concertina, such as a folded book, a bus door or a set of picture frames that are folded together.
noun
Coiled barbed wire for use as an obstacle.
verb
To become compressed into a shape reminiscent of a concertina.
Example Sentences
- "That concertina was a wonder in its way. The handles that was on it first was wore out long ago, and he'd made new ones of braided rope yarn. And the bellows was patched in more places than a cranberry picker's overalls."
- "Elsewhere, professionals could enthuse over new precision instruments capable, for instance, of measuring weights down to a tenth of a milligram, or over a host of self-registering thermometers and barometers, microscopes, typewriters, calculators and all sorts of technical and musical devices, including automatic concertinas, edeophones, auto-harps, bigophones and other long-forgotten objects."
- "The car concertinaed into the wall."
- "Millions of years ago the mica schists surrounding the old Brandberg West Mine became folded and concertinaed by enormous horizontal pressures."
- "This resulted in some fragmentation of the line as the boats in some cases closed to just 50 metres as they concertinaed in and out of sight of each other."
Etymology
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌkɑnsɚˈtinə/
- British English: /ˌkɒnsəˈtiːnə/