dulcimer
noun
dul·ci·mer ˈdəl-sə-mər 
1
: a stringed instrument of trapezoidal shape played with light hammers held in the hands
2
or less commonly dulcimore
ˈdəl-sə-ˌmȯr
: an American folk instrument with three or four strings stretched over an elongate fretted sound box that is held on the lap and played by plucking or strumming 
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Performers will include Rogues and Wenches, The Samhain Fire Dancers, hammered dulcimer player Kade Bissell, Midnight Sun Selkies, and more. 
Anchorage Daily News, 21 Oct. 2021 Here’s the mallet that makes her guitar chime like a dulcimer. Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2021 Maybe that’s why so many were composed on the three-string dulcimer: a nice, portable axe. Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2021 Also featured: the world-renowned glaciologist Richard Alley, with his dulcimer-playing daughter, Karen, and the eminent Adirondack limnologist Curt Stager. Bill Mckibben, The New Yorker, 24 Dec. 2020 The Girl with the Flaxen Hair between themselves, vocalist Alexander scraped a baby-blue hair pick along the strings of a dulcimer (a type of zither) and all three clacked hair straighteners and threw curlers at each other, among other actions. Tim Diovanni, Dallas News, 20 Oct. 2020 Moore found himself in Naselroad's wood shop nearly every day learning how to craft guitars from Appalachian native hardwoods in a town where the mountain dulcimer was first made in the late 1800s. Amy Chillag, CNN, 18 Sep. 2020 People sang for her and played fiddles and dulcimers; one boy used knitting needles on the neck of his banjo. Lidija Haas, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2020 Roth came to the dulcimer as a kid, after playing piano. John Adamian, courant.com, 29 Sep. 2019 See More
Anchorage Daily News, 21 Oct. 2021 Here’s the mallet that makes her guitar chime like a dulcimer. Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2021 Maybe that’s why so many were composed on the three-string dulcimer: a nice, portable axe. Los Angeles Times, 21 June 2021 Also featured: the world-renowned glaciologist Richard Alley, with his dulcimer-playing daughter, Karen, and the eminent Adirondack limnologist Curt Stager. Bill Mckibben, The New Yorker, 24 Dec. 2020 The Girl with the Flaxen Hair between themselves, vocalist Alexander scraped a baby-blue hair pick along the strings of a dulcimer (a type of zither) and all three clacked hair straighteners and threw curlers at each other, among other actions. Tim Diovanni, Dallas News, 20 Oct. 2020 Moore found himself in Naselroad's wood shop nearly every day learning how to craft guitars from Appalachian native hardwoods in a town where the mountain dulcimer was first made in the late 1800s. Amy Chillag, CNN, 18 Sep. 2020 People sang for her and played fiddles and dulcimers; one boy used knitting needles on the neck of his banjo. Lidija Haas, Harper's Magazine, 27 Apr. 2020 Roth came to the dulcimer as a kid, after playing piano. John Adamian, courant.com, 29 Sep. 2019 See More Word History
Etymology
Middle English dowcemere, from Middle French doulcemer, from Old Italian dolcimelo, from dolce sweet, from Latin dulcis
First Known Use
1509, in the meaning defined at sense 1