Castanets is an English word with synonyms like bones or clappers. Below you'll find 7 example sentences showing how it's used in practice.
Castanets in a sentence
Castanets meaning
A percussion instrument (idiophone) of Spanish origin, consisting of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string, held in the hand and used to produce clicking sounds; any hand-held percussion idiophone that can be played with the fingers, such as bones or spoons.
Synonyms of Castanets
Using Castanets
- The main meaning on this page is: A percussion instrument (idiophone) of Spanish origin, consisting of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string, held in the hand and used to produce clicking sounds; any hand-held percussion idiophone that can be played with the fingers, such as bones or spoons.
- Useful related words include: bones, clappers, finger cymbals, maraca.
- In the example corpus, castanets often appears in combinations such as: castanets and, as castanets.
Context around Castanets
- Average sentence length in these examples: 21.4 words
- Position in the sentence: 0 start, 4 middle, 3 end
- Sentence types: 6 statements, 1 questions, 0 exclamations
Corpus analysis for Castanets
- In this selection, "castanets" usually appears in the middle of the sentence. The average example has 21.4 words, and this corpus slice is mostly made up of statements.
- Around the word, clave, shawls and fans stand out and add context to how "castanets" is used.
- Recognizable usage signals include fantasy all castanets and ruffles and free of castanets and flamenco. That gives this page its own corpus information beyond isolated example sentences.
- By corpus frequency, "castanets" sits close to words such as aaba, aafc and aaib, which helps place it inside the broader word index.
Example types with castanets
The same corpus examples are grouped by length and sentence type, making it easier to see the contexts in which the word appears:
Props such as castanets, fans and shawls are rarely used. (10 words)
Did the peacock make castanets out of the Frenchman’s testicles? (11 words)
The ballet is a cheerful Spanish fantasy, all castanets and ruffles and big, bravura steps. (15 words)
I fell in love with the way the peeling bark and bare limbs of the sycamore reveal a ghost tree reaching for the sky, and the way the faded beech leaves cling to their branches and rustle in the wind like castanets. (42 words)
It’s scored for large orchestra with many percussion instruments that include tom-toms, clave, castanets and maracas but I have to admit that the African themes, which were requested in the commission, are not immediately obvious. (37 words)
For the choreographer Ann Yee, this was an opportunity to develop dances free of castanets and flamenco clichés. (18 words)
Did the peacock make castanets out of the Frenchman’s testicles? (11 words)
Example sentences (7)
For the choreographer Ann Yee, this was an opportunity to develop dances free of castanets and flamenco clichés.
I fell in love with the way the peeling bark and bare limbs of the sycamore reveal a ghost tree reaching for the sky, and the way the faded beech leaves cling to their branches and rustle in the wind like castanets.
It’s scored for large orchestra with many percussion instruments that include tom-toms, clave, castanets and maracas but I have to admit that the African themes, which were requested in the commission, are not immediately obvious.
The ballet is a cheerful Spanish fantasy, all castanets and ruffles and big, bravura steps.
Did the peacock make castanets out of the Frenchman’s testicles?
In addition, the dancer may have to dance while using props such as castanets, shawls and fans.
Props such as castanets, fans and shawls are rarely used.
Common combinations with castanets
These word pairs occur most frequently in English texts:
- castanets and 3×
- as castanets 2×