Psaltery definition: an ancient musical instrument consisting of a flat sounding box with numerous strings which are plucked with the fingers or with a plectrum..

A psaltery (Greek: ψαλτήρι) (or sawtry, an archaic form) is a fretboard-less box zither (a simple chordophone) and is considered the archetype of the zither and dulcimer. Plucked keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord were also inspired by it.

psaltery, (from Greek psaltērion: “harp”), musical instrument having plucked strings of gut, horsehair, or metal stretched across a flat soundboard, often trapezoidal but also rectangular, triangular, or wing-shaped. The strings are open, none being stopped to produce different notes.

variants or less commonly psaltry plural psalteries also psaltries : an ancient musical instrument resembling the zither