Meanings
plural cavaquinhos
- A small guitar-string instrument of Portuguese origin, with four wire or gut strings, played with a plectrum.
One person came back with a guitar, another with a Brazilian-style ukulele called a cavaquinho, and a third with a tambourine and a tantam drum with a long, thick neck.
2022 February 7, Jonathan Blitzer, “How Caetano Veloso Revolutionized Brazil’s Sound and Spirit”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN
Synonyms & antonyms
nounA small guitar-string instrument of Portuguese origin, with four wire or gut strings, played with a plectrum.
Origin
- Portuguesecavaquinho
- Englishcavaquinho
Borrowed from Portuguese cavaquinho, from the diminutive of cavaco (“fragment of wood”).
More words from Portuguese
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Portuguese cavaquinho
- cavaquinhosmall guitar-string instrument of Brazilian origin, with four wire or gut strings
Cite this entry
cavaquinho. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cavaquinho
“cavaquinho.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cavaquinho. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “cavaquinho,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/cavaquinho.
Source: cavaquinho on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.