Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Oboe |
OboeNoun1. A slender double-reed instrument; a woodwind with a conical bore and a double-reed mouthpiece. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "oboe" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1855. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Fine Arts | Beating reed with pipes of small scale, shaped as an inverted cone, and surmonted by a bell. It emits a quiet tone of a strangely waiting character, resembling that of a high-pitched nasal voice . Source: European Union. (references) |
Military & Defense | A radar navigational system used primarily for bomb-aiming. Two ground stations, known as cat and mouse, concurrently interrogate an airborne transponder, thus fixing the aircraft, which is directed to fly at a constant distance from cat. The bomb release signal is given from mouse. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
The Oboe is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. It is a descendant of the shawm. In the 17th century Jean Hotteterre and Michel Danican Philidor modified the shawm, so that the new oboe had a narrower bore and a reed which is held by the player's lips near the end. Henry Purcell was the first composer to specifically score for it. Careful manipulation of pressure on the reed allows the player to express a huge range of emotions and moods. A musician who plays the oboe is sometimes called an Oboist.
The oboe is most commomnly found made from grenadilla (or african blackwood), but some manufacturers also make oboes out of high-quality plastic resin. The oboe has an extremely narrow conical bore, and double-reed mouthpiece consisting of two thin blades of cane tied together on a small-diameter metal tube. This setup leads to overblowing at the octave (compared to the clarinet, which overblows a twelfth). The commonly accepted range for the oboe extends from Bb3 to A6, nearly three octaves. Together with the flute/recorder it is one of the oldest woodwind instruments.
Compared to woodwind instruments such as the flute or clarinet, the oboe is very difficult to play and produce a good sound on. Amateur players often produce an unpleasant, out-of-tune strident tone that blends badly with other instruments. It was the main melody instrument in military bands before it was ousted by the clarinet.
Because the oboe is very slow to go out of tune, it is widely called upon to set the pitch for orchestras.
The oboe has several sibling instruments. The most widely known today is the cor anglais (English Horn), which evolved from the Baroque oboe da caccia. Both are pitched a perfect fifth lower than the standard oboe. The oboe d'amore, also popular during the Baroque period, is pitched a minor third lower than the oboe. Johann Sebastian Bach used the oboe d'amore extensively. Even less common is the baritone or bass oboe, which sounds an octave lower than the regular oboe. Delius and Holst both scored for it, but today it is almost a museum piece. Instead, the more powerful heckelphone is used.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Oboe."
Synonyms: OboeSynonyms: hautbois (n), hautboy (n). (additional references) |
Crosswords: Oboe |
| English words defined with "oboe": basset oboe, bassoon ♦ contrabassoon, contrafagotto, cor anglais, Corni di basseto, Corno di bassetto, Corno Inglese, Cromorna ♦ double bassoon ♦ English horn ♦ Harmoniphon, heckelphone, Hoboy ♦ musette pipe ♦ oboe da caccia, Oboe d'amore, oboist ♦ Piffara ♦ shawm. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "oboe": hautboy. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Oboe" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. Albanian (hautboy, oboe), German (oboe), Italian (hautboy, oboe), Portuguese (oboe), Spanish (hautboy, oboe), Swedish (oboe). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | If I wanted this kind of abuse, I'd have a conversation with my oboe teacher (Malcolm in the Middle; writing credit: Daniel Frenette) I could play the oboe. (Friends; writing credit: Jörn O. Jensen; Birger Larsen) You don't even play the oboe! (Friends; writing credit: Jörn O. Jensen; Birger Larsen) You're disturbing my oboe practice (Friends; writing credit: Jörn O. Jensen; Birger Larsen) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Play | Caption | Play | Caption |
 | A film cue featuring a synthesized oboe and strings. | | Low oboe tone. |
| High oboe note. | ||
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Oboe" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 94.74% of the time. "Oboe" is used about 95 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 (singular) | 94.74% | 90 | 34,744 |
| Noun (proper) | 4.21% | 4 | 175,879 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 1.05% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 95 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "oboe": basset oboe ♦ oboe da caccia ♦ oboe d'amore ♦ oboe di caccia. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "oboe": oboe-led, oboe-playing, oboe-reed. | |
Ending with "oboe": cello-oboe. | |
Containing "oboe": Able-oboe-charlie. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day | Expression | Frequency per Day |
oboe | 351 | baroque oboe | 5 |
oboe reed | 46 | oboe instrument | 5 |
oboe fingering chart | 18 | buffet oboe | 4 |
oboe picture | 17 | florida musician oboe | 4 |
history oboe | 17 | larilee oboe | 4 |
gabriels oboe | 16 | joke oboe | 4 |
loree oboe | 14 | oboe playing | 4 |
oboe music | 13 | selmer oboe | 4 |
oboe fingering | 12 | flower oboe | 3 |
oboe supply | 12 | amore d oboe | 3 |
fox oboe | 8 | oboe player | 3 |
oboe play | 8 | fossati oboe | 3 |
free music oboe sheet | 7 | buy oboe | 3 |
oboe sheet music | 7 | oboe reed case | 3 |
making oboe reed | 7 | midi oboe | 3 |
oboe sale | 6 | oboe rental | 3 |
oboe case | 6 | howarth oboe | 3 |
oboe yamaha | 6 | artley oboe | 3 |
used oboe | 5 | concerto mozart oboe | 2 |
free music oboe | 5 | marigaux oboe | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Language | Translations for "oboe"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | oboe (hautboy). (various references) | |
Arabic | مزمار (clarinet, flute, pipe, reed, reed pipe). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | обой (hautboy). (various references) | |
Czech | hoboj (hautboy). (various references) | |
Danish | Oboe, obo. (various references) | |
Dutch | hobo. (various references) | |
Esperanto | hobojo. (various references) | |
Farsi | قره نی(مو.). (various references) | |
Finnish | oboe-järjestelmä. (various references) | |
French | hautbois. (various references) | |
German | Oboe. (various references) | |
Greek | όμποε. (various references) | |
Hungarian | oboa (hautboy). (various references) | |
Irish | óbó. (various references) | |
Italian | oboe (hautboy). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | オープン投信 (au pair, au pair girl, Ohm, open investment trust, open tournament). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | オーボー , オーボエ . (various references) | |
Manx | obo. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | oboeay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | oboé. (various references) | |
Romanian | oboi (hautboy). (various references) | |
Russian | гобой (hautboy). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | oboja. (various references) | |
Spanish | Oboe (hautboy). (various references) | |
Swedish | oboe. (various references) | |
Turkish | obua (hautboy). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | гобой (hautboy). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "oboe": oboes. (additional references) | |
Words containing "oboe": goboes, hoboed, hoboes, semihoboes. (additional references) | |
| |
"Oboe" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: aboe, boobe, booe, Doboj, Eboe, goboe, hoboe, ibeo, iboe, oaoe, Obame, Obbia, obbo, obde, Obdef, obea, Obebe, obee, obene, Obere, obev, obia, obide, obie, obine, obio, obje, Oble, obne, obob, Obod, oboed, oboen, oboer, oboh, oboid, Obok, obol, oboy, obrok, obu, obue, obuse, ocoe, Odboy, odoe, Oeob, oeoe, ofoe, ogoe, ohoe, ojoe, okoe, omoe, onbo, Onoe, oob, ooi, oooo, ooooo, opoe, oqoe, orbie, oroe, Osbom, osoe, ouoe, ovoe, owoe, Oxbode, oxoe, oyoe, ozoa, ozoe, ubo. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "oboe" (pronounced ō"bō) |
| 3 | ō" b ō | hobo, lobo. |
| 2 | -b ō | Abo, bimbo, Carbo, gumbo, jumbo, limbo, Mambo, placebo, Sambo, turbo. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "b-e-o-o" | |
-1 letter: boo, obe. | |
-2 letters: be, bo, oe. | |
| Words containing the letters "b-e-o-o" | |
+1 letter: booed, booze, oboes, obole. | |
+2 letters: befool, behoof, betook, blooey, blooie, bolero, boobed, boodle, booger, boogey, boogie, booked, booker, bookie, boomed, boomer, booted, bootee, bootie, boozed, boozer, boozes, coombe, goboes, goober, hoboed, hoboes, oboles, rebook, reboot, rebozo. | |
+3 letters: beblood, bedroom, befools, begloom, behoove, biotope, blooded, bloomed, bloomer, blooped, blooper, boleros, boloney, bongoes, boodled, boodler, boodles, boogers, boogeys, boogied, boogies, bookend, bookers, bookies, booklet, bookmen, boomers, boomier, boomlet, boonies, boosted, booster, bootees, bootery, booties, bootleg, boozers, boozier, boredom, borneol, bosomed, botonee, brooded, brooder, brooked, brookie, broomed, caboose, coombes, embosom, eobiont, forbode, forbore, globose, gobonee, goobers, goodbye, homeboy, loobies, obovate, prebook, preboom, rebloom, rebooks, reboots, rebozos, seaboot, sorbose, tabooed, theorbo, webfoot, yobboes. | |
| 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. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Sounds 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
