woodwind

Etymology

From wood +‎ wind.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈwʊdwɪnd/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: wood‧wind

Noun

woodwind (plural woodwinds)

1. (music) Any (typically wooden) musical instrument that produces sound by the player blowing into it, through a reed, or across an opening. Woodwind instruments include the recorder, flute, piccolo, clarinet, oboe, cor anglais and bassoon.
   • 2009 February 28, Jon Pareles, “Turf-Sharing, When Indie Met Classical”, in The New York Times‎:

     The seven-member Bell Orchestre was indeed a miniorchestra, with strings, brass, woodwinds and percussion along with occasional guitar and analog electronic noise.

   • 2009 September 14, Allan Kozinn, “Austrian Avant-Garde: Eerie Textures and Text”, in The New York Times‎:

     The graceful, otherworldly sounds on which the first movement was built gave way to sharply articulated, dissonantly blaring woodwind and brass chords, and eventually to a mechanistic passage that combined rumbling low notes and a steady, searing high pitch.

See also

• brass instrument
• keyboard instrument
• percussion instrument
• string instrument