electrophone

Any musical instrument in which the sound is generated by mechanical or electronic oscillators (eg a synthesizer) or in which acoustically generated vibrations require electrical amplification before they can be heard (eg the electric guitar). Electrophones form a fifth main category of instruments, additional to the four included in the standard classification of Hornbostel and Sachs (1914).

An electrophone is any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by electrical means.

Any instrument which produces sound purely by electric means is an electrophone, but the term was not originally applied to instruments where electricity was only used to amplify a sound produced by conventional measures (so that the electric guitar, for example, would have been classified as a chordophone, not electrophone).