What does woodwind mean?
Word: Woodwind
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: Woodwind means the group of musical instruments, such as the flute, clarinet, oboe and bassoon, that are played by blowing across a hole or through a reed.
How do you spell woodwind?
Syllables: wood - wind
Tricky part: It is written as one word, with no space and no hyphen in the middle.
Watch out for: wood-wind, woodwinde
Memory tip: The players of this family sit close together in the orchestra with no gap between them, and the word has no gap either.
Woodwind in a sentence
Example 1: In an orchestra, the woodwind players sit in the middle, just behind the strings.
Example 2: Our music room has a cupboard full of woodwind instruments waiting to be cleaned.
Example 3: A simple bamboo flute also belongs to the woodwind family.
Fun Fact
The flute and the saxophone are counted as woodwinds even though most modern ones are made of metal, because of the way their sound is made.
Practise the CREST Way
Word Fusion
Which two parts join to make the name of a group of musical instruments?
1. brass 2. wod 3. wind 4. pipe 5. whind 6. wood
a) 5 and 6
b) 3 and 6
c) 1 and 4
d) 2 and 3
Show answer
b) 3 and 6. Wood keeps its double o and the air part has no h; woodwhind, wodwind and brasspipe are not words.
Word Puzzle
Match each word with its meaning:
1. woodwind 2. percussion 3. brass a. instruments played by striking or shaking them b. instruments such as the recorder and the piccolo c. metal instruments played by buzzing the lips into a mouthpiece
a) 1-b, 2-c, 3-a
b) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c
c) 1-c, 2-a, 3-b
d) 1-a, 2-b, 3-c
Show answer
b) 1-b, 2-a, 3-c. The recorder and piccolo are woodwinds, drums and cymbals are percussion, and trumpets are brass.
Spell Spies
Choose the incorrectly spelt word:
a) trombone
b) woodwind
c) xylaphone
d) harmonica
Show answer
c) xylaphone. Xylophone has an o after the l, as telephone does.
Sound Check
In which word is 'i' pronounced differently?
a) kitten
b) woodwind
c) windmill
d) unwind
Show answer
d) unwind. Unwind has the long i of kind; the other three have the short i of tin.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. Which of these instruments belongs to the woodwind family?
a) the bagpipes
b) the harp
c) the guitar
d) the double bass
Show answer
a) the bagpipes
2. A clarinet player's sound can be spoilt by ___.
a) a cracked reed
b) a broken guitar string
c) a bent violin bow
d) a loose drum skin
Show answer
a) a cracked reed
