Castanets

Definition: Castanets

Castanets

Noun

1. A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance.

Date "castanets" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1613. (references)

Etymology: Castanets \Cas"ta*nets\, plural noun. [French expression castagnettes, Spanish casta[~n]etas, from the Latin expression castanea (Sp. casta[~n]a) chestnut. So named from the resemblance to two chestnuts, or because chestnuts were first used for castanets. See Chestnut.]. (Websters 1913)

Synonyms: Castanets

Synonyms: bones (n), clappers (n), finger cymbals (n), maraca (n). (additional references)

Crosswords: Castanets

English words defined with "castanets": bolero ♦ Castanet ♦ fandango. (references)

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	We'll make castanets out of your testicles already. (Monty Python and the Holy Grail ; writing credit: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
References	The World Market for Percussion Musical Instruments, Drums, Xylophones, Cymbals, Castanets, and Maracas: A 2004 Global Trade Perspective (reference) (more reference examples)

Books	Castanuelas, Ole! : A Book About Castanets (reference) Die spanische Kastagnette : Ursprung und Entwicklung = The Spanish castanets : origins and evolution (reference) Jim Morrison: Rattlesnakes, Whistles, and Castanets (reference) Join the Hippo Hop/Book and Castanets (Animal Band) (reference) Kids Make Music With Castanets (reference) (more book examples)

Music	Castanets (reference) Moonlight and Castanets (reference) (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Play	Caption
	Castanets clapping three times.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

"Castanets" is generally used as a noun (plural) -- approximately 95.65% of the time. "Castanets" is used about 23 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Noun (plural)	95.65%	22	74,468
Noun (proper)	4.35%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	23	N/A

Language		Translations for "castanets"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		tingëza, kastanjeta, çapare (cymbal). (various references)

Arabic		‏صنجات. (various references)

Bulgarian		кастанети. (various references)

Czech		kastanìty (bone). (various references)

Finnish		kastanjetit. (various references)

French		castagnettes (castanet). (various references)

German		kastagnetten. (various references)

Greek		κρόταλα, καστανιέτεσ, χειροκρόταλα (castanet). (various references)

Hungarian		kasztanyetta. (various references)

Italian		castagnette (castanet), nacchere (castanet, clapper). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		カシミア糸 (cascade, cashew nuts, cashmere, cashmere yarn, casino, casket, caster, casual, casual look, casual water, casual wear, custard pudding, custom, custom IC, customize, customized car, customized communication, customizer, custom-made, customs). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		カスタネット . (various references)

Pig Latin		astanetscay

Portuguese		castanhola (clam, escallop, knacky). (various references)

Romanian		castaniete (bone), geamparale (bones, trill). (various references)

Russian		кастаньеты (knackers). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		kastanjete. (various references)

Spanish		castan~uelas, castañuelas. (various references)

Swedish		kastanjetter. (various references)

Ukranian		кастань�"ти (bone). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Misspellings
	"Castanets" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Cassavetes, Castano, castenadas, castinet, Chastanet. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-c-e-n-s-s-t-t"
	-1 letter: castanet, scantest.
	-2 letters: ascents, catenas, secants, stactes, stances.
	-3 letters: ansate, ascent, assent, castes, catena, centas, cestas, enacts, sancta, sanest, scants, scatts, scenas, scents, secant, stacte, stance, stanes, states, tasset, tastes.
	-4 letters: aceta, acnes, ansae, antae, antas, antes, asset, canes, canst, cants, casas, cases, caste, casts, cates, cents, cesta, easts, enact, etnas, nates, neats, nests.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-c-e-n-s-s-t-t"
	+3 letters: abstractness, anaesthetics, fantasticoes, translocates.
	+4 letters: aestheticians, anecdotalists, fantasticates, scatterations, scatterbrains, tractableness, tradescantias, transcriptase.
	+5 letters: abstractedness, abstractnesses, anelasticities, antidesiccants, antimechanists, articulateness, ascertainments, attractiveness, counterassault, procrastinates, sacramentalist, telangiectases, telangiectasis, transcriptases, transcutaneous, transmittances, ultradistances.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.