Wiktionary
n. (context music English) A musical instrument that produces sound by means of vibrating strings.
Wikipedia
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings. In most string instruments, the vibrations are transmitted to the body of the instrument, which also vibrates, along with the air inside it. The body of most–but not all string instruments–is hollow. There are exceptions, such as types of electric guitar which have a solid wood body; with the electric guitar, a guitar amplifier is used to make the vibrations of the strings audible.
In the Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification, used in organology, string instruments are called chordophones. Common instruments in the string family include the violin, guitar, sitar, electric bass, viola, cello, harp, double bass, rebab, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, and bouzouki. String instruments can be sounded using a number of approaches. The classical strings (violin, viola, cello and double bass) are played pizzicato (by plucking) and using a bow. Guitar-family instruments are played with a variety of techniques, including plucking and strumming.
Usage examples of "string instrument".
He slipped out the long wire he had taken from his wrecked string instrument, wrapping the ends around his hands to form a nearly invisible loop.
That high-pitched, plangent music, like a mournful wind whistling across the mouth of a jar, or a curious string instrument of unknown antiquity.
It was a low but pervading vibration as though the desert was the sounding box of a gigantic string instrument.
Leaning against the wall was a rake, a cricket bat, and a long, peculiar string instrument.
In it, spacers with a flute, a tambourine, and some kind of plucked string instrument were playing to a crowd.
He tried all three while Temzia played a cello, an Earth string instrument that produced deep, rich sounds.
The crouching man played some complicated string instrument that sounded vaguely like the bagpipes.
He walked aimlessly for a few blocks, pausing to look at a window here, a holographic display there, a street vendor selling exquisite alien stone carvings, a psychic forecasting the fall of the Democracy, a street musician of an unknown race playing an atonal but haunting melody on a string instrument of strange design.
He sat and picked out a soothing melody on his gikoto, the five-string instrument that was the mainstay of Tsurani composition.