Definition of 'cymbal'

Definitions found elsewhere

Definition2

After ingesting these rather simplistic definitions you may want something more authoritative: Look up 'cymbal' in the Encyclopedia Britannica or see Microsoft's Encarta article for another explanation. Last but not least you may consider the extensive article at Wikipedia.

My attempt

The cymbal is a round disk with a curved profile.
It is composed of special alloy metals, namely bronze.
It has no distinctive pitch.
It is suspended in the center (as opposed to a gong).
It is played with various beaters, sticks, and mallets or by clanging two of them together.
It belongs to the musical instrument family of idiophones.

Where the word comes from

The current word cymbal derives from the old Greek word

, which means bowl. Chances are, in ancient Greece there wasn't a musical instrument of that name until someone came across the idea of banging their drinking vessels not only when drunk ;-)

Read some more historical stuff in the History section.