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musical box

noun

Simple meaning

Any of different devices that play tunes using pins, on a rotating disk or revolving drum, that strike or pluck metal teeth.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

myoozihkuhlbahks

Say the bold part a little louder.

US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈmjuzɪkəlˈbɑks

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

    Any of various devices that play tunes by means of pins, on a rotating disk or revolving drum, that strike or pluck metal teeth; a music box.

  2. music

    Produces music by means of pins on a revolving cylinder that strike the tuned teeth of a comb-like metal plate

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

This meaning: Any of various devices that play tunes by means of pins, on a rotating disk or revolving drum, that strike or pluck metal teeth; a music box.

Used this way, musical box 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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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.