Meaning of organ in English

Table of contents

Noun
organ
Etymology
late Old English, via Latin from Greek organon‘tool, instrument, sense organ’, reinforced in Middle English by Old French organe
Definitions
1. a fully differentiated structural and functional unit in an animal that is specialized for some particular function
2. a government agency or instrument devoted to the performance of some specific function
Examples
- « The Census Bureau is an organ of the Commerce Department »
3. (music) an electronic simulation of a pipe organ
4. a periodical that is published by a special interest group
Examples
- « the organ of the communist party »
5. wind instrument whose sound is produced by means of pipes arranged in sets supplied with air from a bellows and controlled from a large complex musical keyboard
6. a free-reed instrument in which air is forced through the reeds by bellows

Famous quotes

« Grant that the true organ with which the beautiful is apprehended is the imagination, and it follows that all arts are likely to affect the feelings indirectly. »
Eduard Hanslick
« The Constitution was the expression not only of a political faith, but also of political fears. It was wrought both as the organ of the national interest and as the bulwark of certain individual and local rights. »
Herbert Croly
« The brain is a wonderful organ it starts working the moment you get up in the morning and does not stop until you get into the office. »
Robert Frost
« Most urgently, women's identity must be premised upon our 'beauty' so that we will remain vulnerable to outside approval, carrying the vital sensitive organ of self-esteem exposed to the air. »
Naomi Wolf
« The only power deserving the name is that of masses, and of governments while they make themselves the organ of the tendencies and instincts of masses. »
John Stuart Mill