ukulele, Hawaiian musical instrument developed from the Portuguese guitar. It has a fretted fingerboard and four strings that are plucked or strummed. Patented in 1917, the ukulele became popular in the United States in the 1920s. It is also spelled ukelele.

Small Hawaiian four-stringed guitar. It developed out of a similar Portuguese instrument introduced to Hawaii by sailors in the 1870s. It became highly popular in the U.S. after World War I, when it was used in jazz and bluegrass ensembles and more widely as an amateur solo instrument.

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