Standard Lemma guide

gittern

noun · verb · 3 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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  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈɡɪtən/
  • General-American: /ˈɡɪtəɹn/
  • rhymes with -ɪtə(ɹ)n

1

noun

Meaning 1

A small, quill-plucked, gut-strung musical instrument, most commonly with three to four strings in doubles courses; it is a flat-backed predecessor of the guitar, and it originated around the 13th century, coming to Europe via Moorish Spain.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: quintern

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

To play on the gittern.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • c. 1639-1640. John Milton, The Cambridge Manuscript; Excerpts from pages 35-41, as Reprinted in David Masson, editor & author, The Life of John Milton: Narrated in Connection with the Political, Ecclesiastical, and Literary History of his Time; Volume II, London and New York.: MacMillan and Co, 1871, page 109. ... [E]ach evening every one with mistress, or Ganymede, glitterning along the streets, or solacing on the banks of Jordan, or down the stream.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

a 16th century musical instrument resembling a guitar with a pear-shaped soundbox and wire strings

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cittern, cithern, cither, citole

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: guitar

History

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English giterne, from Old French guiterne, ultimately from Latin cithara. Doublet of cittern.