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harp

noun · verb

Simple meaning

A pair of curved vertical supports for a lampshade.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

hahrp
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈhɑɹp

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. music

    A pair of curved vertical supports for a lampshade

  2. music

    A musical instrument consisting of a body and a curved neck, strung with strings of varying length that are stroked or plucked with the fingers and are vertical to the soundboard when viewed from the end of the body

  3. Any instrument of the same musicological type.

  4. musiccolloquial

    Any musical instrument.

  5. A struck tuned percussion instrument of metal or wooden bars, especially as a function of a theatre organ.

  6. The component of a lamp to which one attaches the lampshade, consisting of a lightweight frame that usually surrounds the bulb with an attachment at the top for the finial.

verb

  1. transitive

    To play on (a harp or similar instrument).

  2. transitive

    To play (a tune) on the harp.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Moderately Common
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A pair of curved vertical supports for a lampshade

Used this way, harp is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a musical use: it is everyday language among musicians and listeners, and specialised outside that.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Where it naturally appears

  • Music/performance
  • Arts writing

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

harp sealaeolian harpharp musicharp stringsgrass harp

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

  • harpernounInflected form

    Someone who plays the harp.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • harp sealnounCompound term

    Common Arctic seal.

  • jew's harpnounCompound term

    A small lyre-shaped musical instrument that is placed between the teeth and played by twanging a wire tongue while changing the shape of the mouth cavity.

  • jews' harpnounCompound term

    A small lyre-shaped musical instrument that is placed between the teeth and played by twanging a wire tongue while changing the shape of the mouth cavity.

  • mouth harpnounCompound term

    A small rectangular free-reed instrument having a row of free reeds set back in air holes and played by blowing into the desired hole.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.