What does bagpipes mean?
Word: Bagpipes
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Bagpipes means a musical instrument in which the player blows air into a bag held under the arm and squeezes it out through tubes to make the notes.
How do you spell bagpipes?
Syllables: bag - pipes
Tricky part: Bagpipes is one word, with no space or hyphen, and it is normally plural: you play the bagpipes, and they are loud. American English sometimes uses the singular, bagpipe.
Watch out for: bag pipes, bag-pipes
Memory tip: One instrument, one word: the bag and its tubes are joined into a single instrument, and its name is joined up in the same way.
Bagpipes in a sentence
Example 1: The sound of bagpipes floated across the field at the Highland games.
Example 2: Mr Fraser learnt to play the bagpipes when he was a schoolboy in Scotland.
Example 3: At the wedding, a band with bagpipes led the guests into the garden.
Fun Fact
Scotland is the country most linked with the bagpipes, but many lands have their own kind; parts of north India play one called the mashak.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Fusion
Add the correct option to the unfinished word to complete the sentence:
At the Scottish dance show, a man in a kilt played the bag________.
a) pippes
b) pipes
c) pypes
d) pieps
Show answer
b) pipes. The second part is the same word as the water pipes in a house, with one p in the middle and e before the s.
Spell Spies
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) trumpets
b) violins
c) cymbals
d) baggpipes
Show answer
d) baggpipes. A shopping bag has just one g, and so does the bag in this instrument.
Jumble Tumble
What is the meaning of the word that can be formed from the given letters?
sgepbipa
a) a set of metal bars that you hit with two small hammers
b) a musical instrument with a bag of air and several pipes
c) a small musical instrument with strings that you play with a bow
d) a large musical instrument with a row of black and white keys
Show answer
b) a musical instrument with a bag of air and several pipes. Unscrambled, the letters give the Scottish instrument, the only one in the list that has a bag.
Word Champ
Which of the words cannot be made using the letters in the given word?
bagpipes
a) gasp
b) begs
c) spies
d) pages
Show answer
c) spies. Spies needs two s's, but bagpipes has only one.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A person who plays the bagpipes is called a ___.
a) drummer
b) bugler
c) fiddler
d) piper
Show answer
d) piper
2. On a set of bagpipes, the pipes that keep sounding one steady low note are called ___.
a) strings
b) keys
c) frets
d) drones
Show answer
d) drones
