theorbo
/θiˈɔɹ.boʊ/noun
theorbo is a noun meaning “A baroque, double-necked lute having an extra set of open bass strings” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled T-H-E-O-R-B-O and has 3 syllables, and it appears about once in every 51 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of theorbo is theorbos or theorboes.
What does theorbo mean?
noun
- 1
A baroque, double-necked lute having an extra set of open bass strings.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce theorbo?
- US /θiˈɔɹ.boʊ/
- UK /θiˈɔː.bəʊ/
Theorbo has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-theorbo.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of theorbo
- theorbos plural
- theorboes plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is theorbo?
Theorbo appears about once in every 51 million words in written English, the 222,788th 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).
Theorbo in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense theorbo:
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 theorbo come from?
From Italian tiorba, from Ottoman Turkish طوربه (torba).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).