Definition of OBOE

oboe

Meanings

Plural: oboes

Noun

  • a slender double-reed instrument; a woodwind with a conical bore and a double-reed mouthpiece
  • A soprano and melody wind instrument in the modern orchestra and wind ensemble. It is a smaller instrument and generally made of grenadilla wood. It is a member of the double reed family.

Origin / Etymology

An earlier form in English is hautboy, but the spelling oboe was adopted into English ca. 1770 from the Italian oboè, a transliteration in that language's orthography of the 17th-century pronunciation of the French word hautbois, a compound word made of haut (“high, loud, high-pitched”) and bois (“wood, woodwind”).

Synonyms

hautbois, hautboy

Scrabble Score: 6

oboe is a valid Scrabble (US) TWL word
oboe is a valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
oboe is a valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 7

oboe is a valid Words With Friends word