gamelan

noun

gam·elan ˈga-mə-ˌlan

-ˌlän

: an Indonesian orchestra made up especially of percussion instruments (such as gongs, xylophones, and drums)

Examples of gamelan in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

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The 12-member gamelan degung ensemble features Burhan Sukarma on suling bamboo flute, traditional dancer Cia Garcia and Rina Oesman, guest vocalist from Indonesia. —

Anne Gelhaus, The Mercury News, 12 Jan. 2025 The classical dance involved exquisite hand gestures and halting body movements set to a gamelan orchestra. —

Scott Mowbray Amrita Chandradas, New York Times, 20 Jan. 2025 The title track starts off sounding like gamelan music, then turns into a busy-grooved evocation on finding catharsis by going for a swim at a busy beach, creating her own ecstatic iteration of traditional baptismal blues imagery. —

Jon Dolan, Rolling Stone, 15 Jan. 2025 Beat communicated with advanced and exotic languages, its wide-ranging vocabulary including experimental, art-rock,pop, jazz, funk, new-wave and gamelan elements. —

Bob Gendron, Chicago Tribune, 2 Nov. 2024 See all Example Sentences for gamelan

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Javanese, going back to Old Javanese gamĕlan "percussion instrument, ensemble of percussion instruments," from gamĕl- "playing of a percussion instrument" + -an, noun-forming suffix

First Known Use

1816, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler

The first known use of gamelan was in 1816

See more words from the same year