Wordul · all words

noun · 2 syllables · /'tʃel.oʊ/

CELLO

What does "CELLO" mean?

A large bowed string instrument of the violin family, played seated between the knees.

Meanings

  1. A bass member of the violin family, held upright between the legs and played with a bow. She tuned her cello before the rest of the quartet arrived.

Did you know?

  • The name 'cello' is a fragment of 'violoncello', which packs a contradiction: it means roughly 'little big-viol', a diminutive ('-cello') stacked on top of an augmentative ('-one').

Word origin

Shortened from Italian 'violoncello', a diminutive of 'violone' ('large viol'); the apostrophe in the older spelling ''cello' marked the dropped first half of the word.

Remember it

CELLO is just the tail of 'violonCELLO' - the big viol you sit and cradle like a CELLo of sound.

A little poem

Held like grief itself,
the long bow draws one low note-
the room leans inward.

haiku

Wordplay

  • The cellist kept telling the same joke at parties. People said hello; she always said 'cello' back.

What it teaches

The deepest voice in the room is rarely the loudest - it just refuses to be rushed.

Quick facts

What does CELLO mean?

A large bowed string instrument of the violin family, played seated between the knees.

Is CELLO a valid word?

Yes — CELLO is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.

How many letters is CELLO?

CELLO has 5 letters and 2 syllables.

Where does CELLO come from?

Shortened from Italian 'violoncello', a diminutive of 'violone' ('large viol'); the apostrophe in the older spelling ''cello' marked the dropped first half of the word.

What can CELLO teach us?

The deepest voice in the room is rarely the loudest - it just refuses to be rushed.

How players do

Be the first to solve it.

Play today's Wordul →