Standard Lemma guide

contrabassoon

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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  • CMU ARPABET: K AA1 N T R AH0 B AE0 S UW1 N Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A larger version of the bassoon sounding one octave lower, having a technique similar to the bassoon but offers more resistance in every way.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

the bassoon that is the largest instrument in the oboe family

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: contrafagotto, double bassoon

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: bassoon

History

Etymology

Semi-anglicized version of Italian contrafagotto, probably following the model of the English word contrabass (which derives from Italian contrabbasso).

Across languages

Translations

17 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: contrafagot — contrabassoon
  • Chinese Mandarin: 低音巴松管 (dīyīnbāsōngguǎn) — contrabassoon
  • Chinese Mandarin: 低音大管 (dīyīndàguǎn) — contrabassoon
  • Chinese Mandarin: 倍低音管 (bèidīyīnguǎn) — contrabassoon
  • Czech: kontrafagot — contrabassoon
  • Finnish: kontrafagotti — contrabassoon
  • French: contrebasson — contrabassoon
  • Galician: contrafagot — contrabassoon
  • Greek: κόντρα φαγκότο (kóntra fagkóto) — contrabassoon
  • Icelandic: kontrafagott — contrabassoon
  • Irish: ollbhasún — contrabassoon
  • Italian: controfagotto — contrabassoon
  • Japanese: コントラファゴット (kontorafagotto) — contrabassoon
  • Polish: kontrafagot — contrabassoon
  • Portuguese: contrafagote — contrabassoon
  • Russian: контрафаго́т (kontrafagót) — contrabassoon
  • Spanish: contrafagot — contrabassoon
Real reading context

contrabassoon in complete knowledge articles