Standard Lemma guide

ukulele

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

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.

  • UK, US: /juː.kəˈleɪ.li/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • /ˈʔukuˈlɛlɛ/ Standard Hawaiian English
  • rhymes with -eɪli
  • CMU ARPABET: Y UW2 K AH0 L EY1 L IY0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A small four-stringed guitar.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: entertainment, lifestyle, music

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: uke, euke

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a small guitar having four strings

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: uke

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: guitar

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Hawaiian ʻukulele, from ʻuku (“flea”) + lele (“jump, jumping”).

Across languages

Translations

57 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: أُكْلَال (ʔuklāl) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Arabic: اوكوليله (ukulēle) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Biak: yuk — small four-stringed guitar
  • Bulgarian: укуле́ле (ukuléle) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Burmese: ယူးခလေလီ၊ — small four-stringed guitar
  • Catalan: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Catalan: ukelele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Chinese Mandarin: 烏克麗麗 /乌克丽丽 (wūkèlìlì) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Chinese Mandarin: 夏威夷吉他 (Xiàwēiyí jítā) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Chinese Mandarin: 尤克里里 (yóukèlǐlǐ) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Chinese Mandarin: 尤克里里琴 (yóukèlǐlǐqín) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Chinese Mandarin: 夏威夷四弦琴 (Xiàwēiyí sìxiánqín) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Czech: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Danish: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Esperanto: ukulelo — small four-stringed guitar
  • Estonian: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Finnish: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • French: ukulélé — small four-stringed guitar
  • German: Ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Hawaiian: ʻukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Hebrew: יוּקוּלֶלֶה (yukulele) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Hebrew: אוּקוּלֵלֵה (ukulele) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Hebrew: יוּקולֶיְלִי (yukuleyli) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Hungarian: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Indonesian: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Irish: ucailéile — small four-stringed guitar
  • Italian: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Japanese: ウクレレ (ukurere) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Kazakh: укулеле (ukulele) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Korean: 우쿨렐레 (ukullelle) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Latvian: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Latvian: havajiešu ģitāra — small four-stringed guitar
  • Malay: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Māori: kuturere — small four-stringed guitar
  • Māori: ukurere — small four-stringed guitar
  • Marathi: उकुलेले (ukulele) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Persian: یوکللی (yukoleli) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Polish: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Portuguese: uquelele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Portuguese: uculele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Portuguese: ukelele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Portuguese: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Russian: укуле́ле (ukuléle) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Russian: гава́йская гита́ра (gavájskaja gitára) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Serbo-Croatian: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Spanish: ukelele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Spanish: guitarra hawaiana — small four-stringed guitar
  • Swahili: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Swedish: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Tagalog: yukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Thai: อูกูเลเล (uu-guu-lee-lêe) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Turkish: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Ukrainian: укуле́ле (ukuléle) — small four-stringed guitar
  • Volapük: kuelel — small four-stringed guitar
  • Welsh: iwcalili — small four-stringed guitar
  • Xhosa: ukulele — small four-stringed guitar
  • Yiddish: אוקולעלע (ukulele) — small four-stringed guitar