Standard Lemma guide

minstrel

noun · verb · 9 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American, Received-Pronunciation: /ˈmɪnstɹ(ə)l/
  • General-American: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: M IH1 N S T R AH0 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Originally, an entertainer employed to juggle, play music, sing, tell stories, etc.; a buffoon, a fool, a jester; later, a medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: also, attributive, historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: bard, jongleur, troubadour

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

Any lyric poet, musician, or singer.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: also, attributive, broadly, poetic

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

One of a troupe of entertainers, often a white person who wore black makeup (blackface), to present a so-called minstrel show, being a variety show of banjo music, dance, and song (now regarded as racist).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: US, also, attributive, broadly, historical

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

noun

Meaning 4

An amphetamine tablet, typically black, or black and white, in colour.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: also, attributive, broadly, slang

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

verb

Meaning 5

To play (a tune on a musical instrument); to sing (a song).

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: also, attributive, figuratively, transitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

verb

Meaning 6

To act as a minstrel; to entertain by playing a musical instrument, singing, etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: also, attributive, figuratively, intransitive

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

7

noun

Meaning 7

a singer of folk songs

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: folk singer, jongleur, poet-singer, troubadour

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: singer, vocalist, vocalizer, vocaliser

Narrower terms: Guthrie, Woody Guthrie, Woodrow Wilson Guthrie, Seeger, Pete Seeger, Peter Seeger

8

noun

Meaning 8

a performer in a minstrel show

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: performer, performing artist

Narrower terms: end man, corner man, interlocutor, middleman

9

verb

Meaning 9

celebrate by singing, in the style of minstrels

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: sing

History

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English minstral, menestrel (“actor; juggler; mime; musician; singer; storyteller; (military) soldier playing a horn or trumpet as a signal”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman menestrel [and other forms] and Old French menestrel (“artisan; servant; itinerant musician or poet; worker”) [and other forms] (modern French ménestrel (“minstrel”)), from Late Latin ministerialis (“official or retainer owing household and military service to a feudal lord, a ministerial or ministerialis”), from Latin ministerium (“employment, ministration; office of a minister, ministry; action or attendance by an inferior person such as a slave, service”) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives). Ministerium is derived from minister (“accomplice; agent; aide; attendant; servant; waiter”) (probably ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey-n- (“little, small”) + *-yōs (“-er”, comparative suffix) + *-teros (contrastive or oppositional suffix forming adjectives)) + -ium (suffix forming abstract nouns). Doublet of ministerial and ministerialis. The verb is derived from the noun.

Across languages

Translations

37 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Belarusian: менестрэ́ль (mjenjestrélʹ) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Bourguignon: ménétrei — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Bulgarian: менестре́л (menestrél) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Catalan: joglar — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Catalan: menestrer — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 吟遊詩人 /吟游诗人 (yínyóu shīrén) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Czech: minstrel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Dutch: speelman — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Dutch: minstreel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Finnish: minstreli — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Finnish: kiertelevä laulaja — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • French: ménestrel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • French: ménétrier — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Galician: segrel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Galician: xogral — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Galician: xograr — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Georgian: მენესტრელი (menesṭreli) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • German: Minnesänger — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • German: Spielmann — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • German: Troubadour — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Greek: μενεστρέλος (menestrélos) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Hungarian: vándorénekes — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Italian: menestrello — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Japanese: ミンストレル (minsutoreru) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Japanese: 吟遊詩人 (gin'yū shijin) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Korean: 민스트럴 (minseuteureol) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Korean: 음유시인 (eumyusiin) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Old English: sċop — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Polish: minstrel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Portuguese: menestrel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Portuguese: jogral — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Romanian: menestrel — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Russian: менестре́ль (menestrélʹ) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Spanish: ministril — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Spanish: juglar — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Ukrainian: менестре́ль (menestrélʹ) — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
  • Walloon: mestré — medieval (especially travelling) entertainer who would recite and sing poetry, often to their own musical accompaniment
Real reading context

minstrel in complete knowledge articles