saxophone
sax·o·phone/ˈsæksəˌfoʊ̯n/noun, verb
saxophone is spelled S-A-X-O-P-H-O-N-E, 3 syllables: sax·o·phone. The wrong spelling people search most is saxaphone: about 1,250 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Saxophone is a noun meaning “A single-reed instrument musical instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and with a…”. The plural of saxophone is saxophones.
How many letters and syllables are in saxophone?
| Letters | 9: S-A-X-O-P-H-O-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: sax·o·phone |
| In writing | 1.4 times per million words; the 23,835th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, saxaphone, about 1,250 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell saxophone?
Saxophone is spelled S-A-X-O-P-H-O-N-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for saxophone in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is saxophone?
Saxophone appears 1.4 times per million words in written English, the 23,835th 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).
How do you pronounce saxophone?
- UK /ˈsæksəˌfəʊ̯n/
- US /ˈsæksəˌfoʊ̯n/
Saxophone has 3 syllables, split sax·o·phone in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-saxophone.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of saxophone
- saxophones plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- saxophoning participle, present
- saxophoned participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does saxophone mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A single-reed instrument musical instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and with a distinctive loop bringing the bell upwards.
I played the saxophone in high school.
- 2
Someone who plays the saxophone; a saxophonist.
The saxophones typically sit behind the flutes in a concert band.
verb
- 1
To play the saxophone.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate saxophone?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of saxophone: Sax., sax.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Saxophone in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense a musical instrument of the woodwind family:
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 saxophone come from?
Borrowed from French saxophone, a combination of the surname of its inventor Adolphe Sax (1814–1894) + -o- + -phone (“something that makes a sound”), from Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound, voice”). The first element surname is a variant of the German Sachs (“Saxon”). Analyzable as Sax + -o- + -phone.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).