philharmonic
phil·har·mon·ic/ˌfɪlhɑː(ɹ)ˈmɒnɪk/adjective, noun
philharmonic is an adjective meaning “Appreciative of music, but especially to its performance; devoted to music” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-I-L-H-A-R-M-O-N-I-C and has 4 syllables (phil·har·mon·ic), and it appears 1.5 times per million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does philharmonic mean?
adjective
- 1
Appreciative of music, but especially to its performance; devoted to music.
noun
- 1
A full-size symphony orchestra.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce philharmonic?
- /ˌfɪlhɑː(ɹ)ˈmɒnɪk/
- /ˌfɪlhə(ɹ)ˈmɒnɪk/
- /ˌfɪlə(ɹ)ˈmɒnɪk/
Philharmonic has 4 syllables, split phil·har·mon·ic in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-philharmonic.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of philharmonic
- philharmonics plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is philharmonic?
Philharmonic appears 1.5 times per million words in written English, the 22,651st 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).
Philharmonic in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense appreciative of the performance of music:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | philharmonique |
| German | philharmonisch |
| Portuguese | filarmónico, filarmônico |
| Spanish | filarmónico |
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 philharmonic come from?
From French philharmonique; from Italian filarmonico. By surface analysis, phil- + harmonic.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).