violin

«violin» in Mova's school dictionary: a musical instrument made of wood with four strings… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

noun (a violin, violins)

meaning for a pupil

1) A violin is a musical instrument made of wood with four strings, which you hold under your chin and play with a bow or by plucking. tree →

2) The violin also means the part a violinist plays in a band or orchestra («She plays first violin»). tree →

sense in the lessons

In music lessons the violin is part of the string family, with the viola, cello and double bass; it is the smallest and highest-sounding of them. In science it shows that sound is made by vibrations: shorter or tighter strings give a higher note. In everyday life children learn the violin in school music programmes and orchestras. Phrases: «play the violin», «violin lessons», «violin case», «a violin bow».

examples

• My sister plays the violin in the school orchestra. tree →
• He practises the violin for twenty minutes every evening. tree →
• The violin has four strings. tree →
• You draw the bow across the strings to make a sound. tree →
• A violin is smaller than a cello. tree →
• She carried her violin in a black case. tree →
• The violin sounded sad and beautiful. tree →
• When you press a string down, the note gets higher. tree →
• When this was done, she called to a man who was waiting with a violin. tree →

note

Countable: a violin, violins. Use «the» with instruments you play: «play the violin». A person who plays it is a violinist. A «fiddle» is the same instrument, used especially in folk and country music. The viola looks similar but is a little bigger and lower.

In the corpora

• In the string family bigger instruments play lower: from highest to lowest they are violin, viola, cello and double bass.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «violin» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.