What does cithern mean?
A cithern is a small, plucked stringed musical instrument with a pear-shaped body, a fretted neck, and wire strings, played chiefly during the Renaissance and early modern periods. It corresponds to what modern dictionaries call the cittern, 'cithern' being one of several historical spellings of that name. Popular across Europe from roughly the sixteenth century onward, the instrument was prized for its bright, ringing tone and was common in domestic music-making as well as public performance. Today the word survives mostly in historical writing, early-music scholarship, and descriptions of museum collections, since living players and luthiers favor the standard spelling 'cittern'. The cithern belongs to the same broad family of plucked instruments as the guitar, lute, and mandolin, but its wire strings and distinctive flat back give it a sharper, more metallic voice than gut-strung lutes. For readers encountering the term, it signals either a quotation of older sources or a deliberately archaic touch.
nounA cithern is a small, flat-backed stringed musical instrument of the Renaissance, plucked with the fingers or a plectrum and typically strung with wire strings. It is an English variant spelling of cittern.
- A fretted, wire-strung, pear-shaped plucked instrument popular in Europe from the Renaissance onward; a variant form of the word cittern.
"The minstrel tuned his cithern before beginning the evening's entertainment."
"She struck a bright chord on the cithern, its wire strings ringing through the hall."
"Museum conservators carefully restored the sixteenth-century cithern for display."
Standard regular plural, used mainly in historical or musicological contexts.
"The collection includes two citherns from the Tudor period."
Before the guitar conquered the world, England had its own beloved stringed star — the cithern — so popular in Tudor taverns that it was practically the pop instrument of the 1500s.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cithern
The word derives ultimately from the Greek kithara, a lyre-like instrument of antiquity, transmitted through Latin cithara and related Romance forms. It entered English in the sixteenth century, when the instrument's name appeared under numerous variant spellings — including cithren, cytherne, and cithern — reflecting both its foreign origin and unsettled early-modern orthography. The standard modern form, cittern, emerged over time alongside cognates in other European languages such as German Zither (a broader family name).
How cithern is actually used
The spelling 'cithern' is now largely historical; modern writers and musicians almost always use 'cittern'. The variant reflects the many competing spellings the instrument's name attracted in earlier centuries. Use 'cithern' when quoting historical sources or evoking a period flavor.
Easily confused with cithern
Cittern is the standard modern spelling of the instrument; 'cithern' is a historical variant spelling referring to essentially the same instrument.
A zither is any of a family of flat stringed instruments played without a neck or fingerboard, whereas a cithern has a neck with frets.