harmonica

UK: /hɑː^rˈmɒnɪkə/ US: /hɑrˈmɑnɪkə/ ,(här mon′i kə)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

har•mon•i•ca /hɑrˈmɑnɪkə/   n. [countable] , pl. -cas. 

1. Music and Dance a small musical wind instrument containing a set of metal reeds.

Also called mouth organ. 

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

har•mon•i•ca  (här mon′i kə), n. 

1. Music and Dance Also called mouth organ. a musical wind instrument consisting of a small rectangular case containing a set of metal reeds connected to a row of holes, over which the player places the mouth and exhales and inhales to produce the tones.
2. Music and Dance any of various percussion instruments that use graduated bars of metal or other hard material as sounding elements.

• Latin) applied by Benjamin Franklin in 1762 to a set of musical glasses; later used of other instruments
• Italian
• in the form armonica (noun, nominal use of feminine of Latin harmonicus harmonic

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

harmonica / hɑːˈmɒnɪkə/ noun

1. Also called: mouth organ a small wind instrument of the reed organ family in which reeds of graduated lengths set into a metal plate enclosed in a narrow oblong box are made to vibrate by blowing and sucking
2. See glass harmonica

Etymology: 18th Century: from Latin harmonicus relating to harmony