oboe

/ˈoʊboʊ/

/ˈʌʊbəʊ/

Other forms: oboes

An oboe is a long, black musical instrument. You play an oboe by blowing into its mouthpiece and pressing keys to form notes.

The earliest oboe was modeled after an extremely loud, high-pitched Middle Eastern instrument called the shawm. The name oboe was originally hautbois, or "high, loud wood" in French, also sometimes spelled hoboy in English. The Italians transliterated the French name to oboè, and the English followed around 1770 with oboe. Another distinctive feature of the oboe is its double reed mouthpiece.

Definitions of oboe

1. noun

   a slender double-reed instrument; a woodwind with a conical bore and a double-reed mouthpiece
   synonyms: hautbois, hautboy

   types:

   basset oboe, heckelphone

   an oboe pitched an octave below the ordinary oboe

   musette pipe

   a small simple oboe

   oboe da caccia

   an alto oboe; precursor of the English horn

   oboe d'amore

   an oboe pitched a minor third lower than the ordinary oboe; used to perform baroque music

   shawm

   a medieval oboe

   bombard, bombardon

   a large shawm; the bass member of the shawm family

   type of:

   double reed, double-reed instrument

   a woodwind that has a pair of joined reeds that vibrate together