tuba

Borrowed in the 19th century from French tuba (“tuba”),^[1] German Tuba (“tuba”), originally Baß-Tuba (literally “bass tuba”), or Italian tuba (“tuba”),^[2] from Latin tuba (“tube, trumpet, military trumpet”). The Latin term is of obscure ultimate origin, but is possibly connected to tībia (“shinbone, reed-pipe”); see there.

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈtjuː.bə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈtu.bə/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːbə

tuba (plural tubas)

1. A large brass musical instrument, usually in the bass range, played through a vibration of the lips upon the mouthpiece and fingering of the keys.
   • 1990, Thomas D. Rossing, The Science of Sound, page 230:

     One version of the large tuba, popular in marching bands, is called a sousaphone in honor of bandsman John Philip Sousa.

2. A large reed stop in organs.

• grunt-horn

• euphonium, sousaphone
• tube
• tubular
• corno basso (keyed bass horn)
• bombardon
• ophicleide
• valve-ophicleide
• bucina
• cornu

• “tuba”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• tuba on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Roman tuba on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Learned borrowing from Latin tuba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtʊ.bə/^[3]

tuba (plural tubas or tubae)

1. (anatomy) A tube or tubular organ.
   • 1958, Oliver P[ayne] Pearson, “Phyllotis andium”, in A Taxonomic Revision of the Rodent Genus Phyllotis (University of California Publications in Zoology; volume 56, number 4), Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, →OCLC, page 437:

     Compared with skulls of darwini, skulls of andium are smaller with shorter tooth rows (fig. 13), have less globular bullae that taper more gradually to the tubae, and a shorter, proportionately narrower rostrum with nasals usually relatively blunt behind and seldom projecting posteriorly far behind the premaxillae (pl. 11).

2. A type of Roman military trumpet, distinct from the modern tuba.
   • 1968, Roger Bragard, Ferdinand J[oseph] de Hen, translated by Bill Hopkins, “Wind Instruments”, in Musical Instruments in Art and History (A Studio Book), New York, N.Y.: Viking Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, part II (The Middle Ages), page 60:

     From the eleventh century onwards, the trumpets, which had till then been modelled on the Roman tubae with their straightforward and somewhat rough sound, began to grow longer and thinner as their bells widened.

   • 1986, Raymond Buniak, A Twentieth-Century Treatise on the Trombone‎^[1], [Bartlett, Ill.]: Raymond Buniak, →OCLC:

     This depicts trumpet blowing angels gripping instruments, of the Roman tubae variety, halfway down with the right hand, the left hand covering their mouth and the mouthpiece.

   • 1994 April, Stephan Grundy, “Along the Rhine”, in Rhinegold, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, book III (The Death of Athelings), page 451:

     As he drew nearer to Worms, he heard the brassy blare of Roman tubae from the ruddy sandstone walls of the city.

• Roman tuba on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Malay tuba.

tuba (uncountable)

1. A Malayan plant whose roots are a significant source of rotenone, Derris malaccensis.

• Derris on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Derris on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Category:Derris on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Borrowed from Tagalog tuba.

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /tuˈbə/
• (Philippines) IPA^(key): /tuˈbaʔ/

tuba (uncountable)

1. (Philippines) A reddish palm wine made from coconut or nipa sap.

• Batu, Taub, abut, batu, buat, buta, tabu

Inherited from Proto-Bantu *-tób.

tuba

1. to pierce

Inherited from Proto-Philippine *tuba. First attested in Antonio Pigafetta's Relazione del primo viaggio intorno al mondo—detailing the first circumnavigation of the world between 1519 and 1522.

• Hyphenation: tu‧bâ
• (Standard Cebuano) IPA^(key): /tʊˈbaʔ/

tubâ (Badlit spelling ᜆᜓᜊ)

1. a reddish palm wine made from coconut or nipa sap
   • 2016 — Sumagang, Emeterio S., Barkada (20 January), Bisaya, Manila Bulletin Publishing Corporation

     Sakit sa ulo sa ilang isigkaginikanan ang barkada. Walay usa nga nakatapos og kurso kay pulos tapolan moeskuyla. Hilig sa pamayabas, matod pa. Dunay publikong kolehiyo sa lungsod nga ang balayranan maabot sa bolsa sa ilang mga ginikanan apan gipalabi nila ang bagdoy-bagdoy. Wala silay mga trabaho ug nagpabuhi lang sa ilang mga ginikanan nga igo-igo ra sad ang kahimtang. Gidagnayan silag sunog-baga kay sobra kapalahubog. Tanan lalaon— tuba, serbesa, ram, wiski, brandi; baratohon o mahalon, lokal o imported. Kay way sapi, manggeyt kras silas mga kasal, bunyag ug birtdey parti aron makakaon ug makainom nga libre. Kadumdom silas patron sa tanang baryo sa lungsod sa Maigo kay way pista nga palabyon.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2017 — Tiu, Macario D., Laghan (27 June), Bisag Unsa, Mindaviews, MindaNews

     Nagkaon nig itlog sa pawikan ug nag-inom og tuba pinaagi sa pagsuyop niini gikan sa banga gamit ang straw (tingali gamayng kawayan).

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• → English: tuba
• → Tagalog: tubâ

• bahal
• bahalina

• Hyphenation: tu‧ba
• (Standard Cebuano) IPA^(key): /tʊˈba/

tuba (Badlit spelling ᜆᜓᜊ)

1. to cut down
2. to harvest banana fruits
   • 2010 — Panilagao, Bartolome M., Mutya sa Saging Gardaba (24 May), Sugilanon, Kalingawan, Banat News

     Ambot unsang hitaboa, nga nahitiurok man si Miyoy, niadtong usa ka punoan nga saging gardaba, nga miali sa iyang paglakaw? Imbis mopaingon na unta siya sa dagat, iya naman hinuon kini nga gituba, aron dad-on sa iyang pinuy-anan ug malung-ag ni Nisya, nga sarang ikapamahaw sa iyang tulo ka buok anak nga pulos nagkutoy ang tiyan sa kagutom?

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• IPA^(key): [ˈtuba]

tuba f

1. tube (a cylindrical container)
2. tuba (a large brass musical instrument)

Borrowed from German Tuba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈty.baː/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tu‧ba

tuba m (plural tuba's, diminutive tubaatje n)

1. tuba (large brass musical instrument)

• van der Sijs, Nicoline, editor (2010), “tuba”, in Etymologiebank, Meertens Institute

• Tuba (instrument) on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^nl

From Proto-Finnic *tupa, from Germanic. Cognate to Livonian tubā, Finnish tupa, Icelandic stofa, German Stube, Swedish stuga.

tuba (genitive toa, partitive tuba)

1. room, chamber

Declension of tuba (ÕS type 18e/tuba, b-ø gradation)
		singular	plural
nominative		tuba	toad
accusative	nom.
	gen.	toa
genitive			tubade
partitive		tuba	tube tubasid
illative		tuppa toasse	tubadesse
inessive		toas	tubades
elative		toast	tubadest
allative		toale	tubadele
adessive		toal	tubadel
ablative		toalt	tubadelt
translative		toaks	tubadeks
terminative		toani	tubadeni
essive		toana	tubadena
abessive		toata	tubadeta
comitative		toaga	tubadega

• IPA^(key): /ty.ba/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

tuba m (plural tubas)

1. tuba
2. snorkel
3. funnel cloud (or tub; see cumulonimbus tuba)

• “tuba”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• buta

tuba f (plural tubas)

1. tuba

• IPA^(key): [ˈtubɒ]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: tu‧ba
• Rhymes: -bɒ

tuba (plural tubák)

1. (music) tuba

• ([music] tuba): tuba in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• ([folksy] dove; darling): tuba in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
• tuba in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

• IPA^(key): /ˈtuba/
• Rhymes: -ba, -a
• Hyphenation: tu‧ba

Inherited from Malay tuba, from Classical Malay توبا (tuba), from Old Malay [script needed] (tūva), from Proto-Malayic *tuba, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tubah, from Proto-Austronesian *tubah (“Derris elliptica”).

tuba (plural tuba-tuba)

1. poison

   Hypernym: racun

2. a Malayan plant whose roots are a significant source of rotenone, Derris malaccensis

From Dutch tuba, from German Tuba, from Italian tuba, from Latin tuba (“tube, trumpet, military trumpet”).

tuba (plural tuba-tuba)

1. tube

   Synonyms: saluran, tabung

   Synonym: tiub (Standard Malay)

2. (music) tuba: A large brass musical instrument, usually in the bass range, played through a vibration of the lips upon the mouthpiece and fingering of the keys.

• “tuba”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016

• IPA^(key): /ˈtu.ba/
• Rhymes: -uba
• Hyphenation: tù‧ba

From Latin tuba.

tuba f (plural tube)

1. (music) tuba
2. top hat

   Synonym: cilindro

3. (anatomy) tube

   Synonym: tuba di Falloppio

• tubarico

• tuba bassa
• tuba contrabbassa
• tuba tenore
• tuba grave
• tuba wagneriana

• elicone
• sousaphone
• bombardone
• euphonium

tuba

1. inflection of tubare:
   1. third-person singular present indicative
   2. second-person singular imperative

• tuba¹ in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• tabù

tuba

1. to say

Possibly connected to tībia (“shinbone, reed-pipe”) with similarities in meaning and form.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈtʊ.ba]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈtuː.ba]

tuba f (genitive tubae); first declension

1. (literally, music) long trumpet over 1 meter in length, especially a war-trumpet
2. (transferred sense)
   1. signal for war, war
   2. loud sound
      1. sonorous, elevated epic poetry
      2. lofty style of speaking
3. (figurative) exciter, author, instigator

First-declension noun.

• tūbārius
• tubicen
• tubilustrium
• tubula
• tubus

• “tuba”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “tuba”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• "tuba", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• “tuba”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • the bugle, trumpet sounds before the general's tent: classicum or tuba canit ad praetorium
    
• “tuba”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper’s Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “tuba”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin
• Michiel de Vaan (2008), Alexander Lubotsky, editor, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden: Brill

Borrowed from Bangi tuba.

1. to pierce

-tuba (infinitive kotuba)

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

tuba

1. Salaca form of tubā (“room”)

• Andreas Johan Sjögren, Ferdinand Johann Wiedemann (1861), Livisch-deutsches und deutsch-livisches Wörterbuch
• Pajusalu, Karl & Winkler, Eberhard, Salis-livisches Wörterbuch (2009). Eesti Teaduste Akadeemia. Tallinn.

Inherited from Proto-Malayic *tuba, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tubah, from Proto-Austronesian *tubah.

First attested in the Kota Kapur inscription, 686 AD, as Old Malay [script needed] (tūva),

• (schwa-variety) IPA^(key): /ˈtubə/ [ˈt̪u.bə]
  • Rhymes: -ubə, -bə, -ə
• (Baku, schwa-variety) IPA^(key): /ˈtuba/ [ˈt̪u.ba]
  • Rhymes: -uba, -ba, -a
• Hyphenation: tu‧ba

tuba (Jawi spelling توبا, plural tuba-tuba or tuba²)

1. (fishing) fish poison made from plant roots

   Hypernym: racun

2. a Malayan plant whose roots are a significant source of rotenone, Derris malaccensis.

• > Indonesian: tuba (inherited)
• → English: tuba

Borrowed from English tuba, from Latin tuba (“tube, trumpet, military trumpet”).

• (schwa-variety) IPA^(key): /ˈtubə/ [ˈt̪u.bə]
• Rhymes: -ubə, -bə, -ə
• (Baku, Riau-Lingga) IPA^(key): /ˈtuba/ [ˈt̪u.ba]
• Rhymes: -uba, -ba, -a
• Hyphenation: tu‧ba

tuba (Jawi spelling توبا, plural tuba-tuba or tuba²)

1. (music) tuba: A large brass musical instrument, usually in the bass range, played through a vibration of the lips upon the mouthpiece and fingering of the keys.

• "tuba" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017

Learned borrowing from Latin tuba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtu.ba/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uba
• Syllabification: tu‧ba

tuba f (diminutive tubka)

1. tube (cylindrical container)
2. tuba (large brass musical instrument)
3. tube scarf (shawl in which the ends are stitched together, interposed several times around the neck when put on in order to surround this part of the body with a thick and high layer of knitted or woven fabric to protect against the cold)

   Synonym: komin

   Hypernym: szal

• tuba in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• tuba in Polish dictionaries at PWN

From Latin tuba.

• Rhymes: -ubɐ
• Hyphenation: tu‧ba

tuba f (plural tubas)

1. (music) tuba (a large brass musical instrument)

• “tuba”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “tuba”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

From Tagalog tuba or Cebuano tuba.

• IPA^(key): /ˈtuba/ [ˈt̪u.β̞a]
• Rhymes: -uba
• Syllabification: tu‧ba

tuba f (uncountable)

1. (Mexico, Philippines) coconut wine made from sweet coconut sap

• → Chamorro: tuba

• “tuba”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

Inherited from Proto-Philippine *tubaʔ. Compare Ilocano tuba, Kapampangan tuba, Calamian Tagbanwa tëw̓a, Aborlan Tagbanwa teba, Central Bikol tuba, Aklanon tuba, Cebuano tuba, Hiligaynon tuba, Maranao tiba' / toba, Western Bukidnon Manobo teba, and Tausug tuba'. See also Malay tuak, Javanese ꦠꦸꦮꦏ꧀ (tuwak), and Old Javanese twak.

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /tuˈbaʔ/ [t̪ʊˈbaʔ]
• Rhymes: -aʔ
• Syllabification: tu‧ba

tubâ (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜓᜊ)

1. tubâ, a palm wine created from the sap of various species of palm trees

• → Spanish: tuba

• lambanog

Inherited from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *tubah, from Proto-Austronesian *tubah (“Derris elliptica”).

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ˈtuba/ [ˈt̪uː.bɐ]
• Rhymes: -uba
• Syllabification: tu‧ba

tuba (Baybayin spelling ᜆᜓᜊ)

1. purging croton (a kind of croton plant the seeds of which is used to make croton oil)
2. croton oil
3. fish poison made from this plant
4. act of poisoning fish (with such a poison)

   Synonym: pagtuba

• “tuba”, in KWF Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino, Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2025
• Noceda, Fr. Juan José de; Sanlucar, Fr. Pedro de (1860), Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, compuesto por varios religiosos doctos y graves, y coordinado por…, ultimamente aumentado y corregido por varios religiosos de la Orden de Agustinos calzados.‎^[3] (overall work in Spanish and Classical Tagalog), Manila: Ramírez y Giraudier.

• utab

• IPA^(key): [ˈtu.ba]

tuba

1. (stative) to be piled

• Rika Hayami-Allen (2001), A descriptive study of the language of Ternate, the northern Moluccas, Indonesia, University of Pittsburgh