panpipes
noun
panpipes is a noun meaning “An instrument consisting of a series of ten or more tubes of different lengths, typically closed at the bottom and open at the top, and is played by…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-A-N-P-I-P-E-S, and it appears about once in every 39 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does panpipes mean?
noun
- 1
An instrument consisting of a series of ten or more tubes of different lengths, typically closed at the bottom and open at the top, and is played by blowing across the open end at the top.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce panpipes?
- US
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-panpipes.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of panpipes
- pan pipes
- panpipe
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is panpipes?
Panpipes appears about once in every 39 million words in written English, the 191,932nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Panpipes in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense musical instrument:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | flûte de Pan, syrinx, syringe |
| German | Panflöte |
| Portuguese | flauta de Pã, siringe |
| Spanish | zampoña, flauta de Pan, toyo, sicu, sicuri, siku |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does panpipes come from?
From Pan (“Greek god of nature”) + pipes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).