Xylophone vs. Lyre — What's the Difference?

The xylophone (from the Greek words ξύλον—xylon, "wood" + φωνή—phōnē, "sound, voice", literally meaning "sound of wood") is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets. Like the glockenspiel, the xylophone essentially consists of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano.

A stringed instrument like a small U-shaped harp with strings fixed to a crossbar, used especially in ancient Greece. Modern instruments of this type are found mainly in East Africa.

A percussion instrument consisting of a mounted row of wooden bars that are graduated in length to sound a chromatic scale, played with two small mallets.

A stringed instrument of the harp family having two curved arms connected at the upper end by a crossbar, used to accompany a singer or reciter of poetry, especially in ancient Greece.

(musical instrument) Any musical instrument (percussion idiophone) made of wooden slats graduated so as to make the sounds of the scale when struck with a small drumstick-like mallet; the standard Western concert xylophone or one of its derivatives.

An ancient stringed musical instrument (a yoke lute chordophone) of Greek origin, consisting of two arms extending from a body to a crossbar (a yoke), and strings, parallel to the soundboard, connecting the body to the yoke.

To play a xylophone or to play something else as though it was a xylophone.

Any instrument of the same musicological classification; any yoke lute.

To move above a ridged surface so as to hit every ridge, in a manner similar to playing quickly and sequentially on a xylophone.

A lyre-shaped sheet music holder that attaches to a wind instrument when a music stand is impractical.

An instrument common among the Russians, Poles, and Tartars, consisting of a series of strips of wood or glass graduated in length to the musical scale, resting on belts of straw, and struck with two small hammers. Called in Germany strohfiedel, or straw fiddle.

(obsolete) A composer of lyric poetry.

An instrument to determine the vibrative properties of different kinds of wood.

(rare) to play the lyre

A percussion instrument with wooden bars tuned to produce a chromatic scale and with resonators; played with small mallets

A stringed instrument of music; a kind of harp much used by the ancients, as an accompaniment to poetry.

One of the constellations; Lyra. See Lyra.

A harp used by ancient Greeks for accompaniment