What does cembali mean?
Cembali is the plural form of cembalo, an Italian-derived word for a harpsichord — the plucked keyboard instrument that dominated European music before the piano displaced it in the late eighteenth century. The singular cembalo is a shortened form of clavicembalo, literally 'keyed-psaltery', reflecting how the strings are sounded by quills rather than hammers. In modern usage, cembali appears almost exclusively in writing about early music, instrument collections, and historically informed performance, where precision about instrument types matters. A writer might describe a Baroque ensemble performing with two cembali, or note that a museum houses restored cembali from seventeenth-century Venice. The word carries a scholarly, specialist flavour: general readers will more often meet the English term harpsichord, while musicians and musicologists reach for cembalo and its plural when discussing repertoire originally written for the instrument. Its retention of the Italian plural marks it as a borrowing that has kept its native grammar.
nounPlural of cembalo: a harpsichord, especially one of the Italian type.
- Plural of cembalo: harpsichords, particularly the Italian variety used in Baroque music.
"The ensemble's two cembali were tuned to different temperaments for the Baroque programme."
"The museum's collection includes several seventeenth-century Italian cembali."
"For the continuo part, the orchestra engaged two fine cembali built by modern makers."
Cembali itself functions as the standard plural; the singular is cembalo. An anglicized plural 'cembalos' exists but is less favoured by specialists.
"The workshop restores antique cembali for concert use across Europe."
One harpsichord is a cembalo; two make cembali — a word Bach-era instrument makers borrowed straight from Italian and never let go.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cembali
Cembali is the Italian plural of cembalo, itself an abbreviation of clavicembalo, from Latin clavis ('key') combined with cembalo ('psaltery'), ultimately tracing back through Late Latin to Greek kymbalon ('cymbal', a percussion instrument). The term entered English musical vocabulary during the revival of interest in early instruments, retaining its Italian plural form alongside the anglicized 'cembalos'. Cognate terminology appears across musical vocabulary descended from the same Latin root clavis, such as clavichord and clavier.
Related word forms
How cembali is actually used
A technical term confined mainly to classical music writing and organology; the anglicized plural 'cembalos' also occurs but is less common among specialists. Always plural in this form — the singular is cembalo.
Easily confused with cembali
Timpani are kettledrums, whereas cembali are plural keyboard instruments of the harpsichord family.