The violin is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest and highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which also includes the viola and cello.
A violin is sometimes informally called a fiddle, no matter what kind of music is played on it. The word "violin" comes to us through the Romance languages from the Middle Latin word vitula, meaning "stringed instrument"; this word may also be the source of the Germanic "fiddle".