Trumpets

How to spell trumpets

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce trumpets

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does trumpets mean?

1. nounMore than one brass musical instrument with a flared bell, played by blowing through a mouthpiece.
2. verbAnnounces or proclaims something loudly and proudly.

Trumpets in a sentence

• noun

  The music shop displayed a row of polished trumpets in the window.

• verb

  The company trumpets its record profits in every advertisement.

• noun

  Three trumpets and two trombones make up the school brass section.

• verb

  The press release trumpets the firm's new green credentials.

Where does trumpets come from?

Language of origin: French

This word goes back to the Old French trompette, a diminutive of trompe, meaning a horn or war-trumpet, which English adopted in the 1300s. The French trompe itself is thought to come from a Germanic source that imitated the blaring sound of the instrument, so the word is partly echoic in origin. The little diminutive ending tte marked a smaller, higher-pitched horn, and that softened ending is why English ended up with the doubled t spelling in trumpet. Over time the noun gave rise to a verb meaning to sound a trumpet, and from there to the figurative sense of proclaiming something loudly and proudly. The plural and verb form simply add s to the base, but writers sometimes hesitate over whether to double the t, since the base already ends in a single t after a short vowel.

How the word is built

• trumpet (from Old French trompette, a small horn)
• -s (plural/third-person verb suffix)