vi·o·la 1 
(vē-ōlə)
(vē-ōlə)n.
1. A stringed instrument of the violin family, slightly larger than a violin, tuned a fifth lower, and having a deeper, more sonorous tone.
2. An organ stop usually of eight-foot or four-foot pitch yielding stringlike tones.
[Italian, from Old Italian, from Old Provençal, a kind of early viol, ultimately of imitative origin (probably back formation from violar, to play the viol, from *viu, sound imitative of a hurdy-gurdy or viol).]
vi·olist n.