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chime

Pronunciation: /tʃaɪm/

The English word “chime” has 10 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A musical instrument producing a sound when struck, similar to a bell (e.g. a tubular metal bar) or actually a bell. Often used in the plural to refer to the set: the chimes.
  2. An individual ringing component of such a set.
  3. A small bell or other ringing or tone-making device as a component of some other device.
  4. The sound of such an instrument or device.
  5. A small hammer or other device used to strike a bell.

verb

  1. To make the sound of a chime.
  2. To cause to sound in harmony; to play a tune, as upon a set of bells; to move or strike in harmony.
  3. To utter harmoniously; to recite rhythmically.
  4. To agree; to correspond.
  5. To make a rude correspondence of sounds; to jingle, as in rhyming.

Etymology

From Middle English chymbe, chyme, probably from Old Northern French chimbe (“cymbal”), a back-formation from chimble, cimble, from Latin cymbalum; perhaps reinforced by a misinterpretation of a Middle English *chymbele (from Old English ċimbala, ċimbal (“cymbal”)) as chymbe belle.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.