How to Use calliope in a Sentence

calliope

noun
  • The calliope's whistling is said to be heard as much as five miles away on clear days.
    — Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, 9 Oct. 2025
  • But the fair website said drive-thru exhibits included old fire trucks, livestock and a calliope.
    — From Usa Today Network and Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 23 Oct. 2020
  • The calliope sound, mixed with tambourines and drums, rounds out the merry-go-round experience.
    — Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 5 May 2017
  • Calliope music blared from the kiddie rides just a few hundred feet from the area where bleating sheep were being judged for best in show.
    — Suzanne Baker, Naperville Sun, 28 July 2017
  • The Belle of Louisville steamboat features a historic calliope played by Martha Gibbs.
    — Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Especially when even the highlights could be accompanied by a calliope.
    — Kevin Sherrington, Dallas News, 1 Oct. 2020
  • The calliope is playing on the Mark Twain riverboat while visitors cheer the frog-jump competition.
    — Paul Meincke, chicagotribune.com, 10 Aug. 2017
  • The distinctive, merry sounds of a steam calliope float through the streets of downtown Baraboo, Wisconsin.
    — Chicago Tribune Staff, Chicago Tribune, 21 July 2022
  • Just as the calliope music entices young children to chase such trucks on summer streets, the burly Bearcats swarmed around the vendor as if Earth's last cones were being served.
    — Scott Springer, Cincinnati.com, 16 Aug. 2017
  • Music will be provided by Irish musicians, a Chinese instrumental group and an old-fashioned calliope.
    — Katharina Woodman, The Mercury News, 20 Sep. 2019
  • The haunting calliope music by jazz pianist Jason Moran is based on African American protest and celebration songs.
    — Doug MacCash, NOLA.com, 23 Feb. 2018
  • The calliope whistles loudly on the roof of the 111-year-old vessel when Martha Gibbs, 81, plays what looks like a small piano inside of a closet behind the bar down below.
    — Leo Bertucci, Louisville Courier Journal, 9 Oct. 2025
  • Nilsson’s watercolors complemented the work of the Hairy Who while also being slightly off-key; imagine the same hectic ragtime played on a calliope instead of a piano.
    — Jeremy Lybarger, Artforum, 2 June 2026
  • Byrd co-wrote the majority of the songs and handled all of the electronic music — as well as the electric harpsichord, organ, calliope, piano, and synthesizer — while Moskowitz sang lead vocals.
    — Nina Corcoran, Pitchfork, 15 Dec. 2025
  • Since it was invented in the 19th century, calliopes have been associated with riverboats and traveling circuses -- the instrument's sounds were deemed too harsh and too loud for the liturgical settings for which it was created.
    — Pelican Bomb, NOLA.com, 7 Mar. 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'calliope.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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