Home › Glossary › Letter S

Santoor

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A trapezoidal hammered dulcimer from Kashmir and Persia, with a shimmering tone

Detailed Definition
The santoor’s delicate, cascading notes appear in Urdu and Persian poetry to evoke Sufi mysticism, mountain solitude, and lyrical refinement; its association with Pandit Shivkumar Sharma links it to themes of cultural synthesis and meditative expression in modern verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Kashmiri poets call the santoor “a hundred strings of Himalayan snow”; Its hammered notes mimic mountain streams; “Santoor sings—peacocks dance in temple courtyards”; In Sufi verse, the santoor’s resonance mirrors divine echo: “Strike wood—light answers from within.”
Additional Notes
The santoor is a trapezoidal hammered dulcimer from Kashmir and Persia, with strings struck by lightweight mallets; its shimmering, resonant tones suit Sufi and classical music—ideal for poems about meditation, the geometry of sound, or the santoor as bridge between Indian and Persian sonic aesthetics.
Also Known As
Santur (Persian variant) hammered dulcimer (general category)
Skip to main content