dissonance
/ˈdɪs(ə)nəns
/- Most of all, he shows a flair for matching the climaxes in the action with musical climaxes, using dissonance, the singer's virtuosity, or instrumental sonorities to create the sense of heightened emotion.
- Abandoning the preconceived notions of tonality, and immersed within a musical state of dissonance, Coltrane's music became a communicative attempt at reaching a higher plane.
- The music's density is intriguing, its rhythmic energy is compelling, and its harmonic complexity and dissonance is unusual for Reich.
Synonyms
- I am the child of their ancestral dissonance with all its contrariness and overlappings.
- Does this dissonance between politicians and voters matter?
- Yet it might end up in increasing political dissonance between continental Europe on one side and England and the US on the other.
Synonyms
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French, from late Latin dissonantia, from Latin dissonant- 'disagreeing in sound', from the verb dissonare.
sound from Old English:
There are four different ‘sounds’ in English. The one relating to noise is from Latin sonus. Related words are dissonance (Late Middle English) ‘inharmonious’; resonance (Late Middle English) ‘echo, resound’; resonant (late 16th century); resound (Late Middle English); and sonorous (early 17th century). Sonar, however, is an acronym formed from Sound Navigation and Ranging on the pattern of radar. Sound, meaning ‘in good condition, not damaged or diseased’, is from Old English gesund. In Middle English the prominent sense was ‘uninjured, unwounded’. Use of sound to mean ‘having well-grounded opinions’ dates from the early 16th century; the phrase as sound as a bell appeared in the late 16th century. This puns on the first meaning of sound, and also on the fact that a cracked bell will not ring true. The third sound (Late Middle English) ‘ascertain the depth of water’ is from Old French sonder, based on Latin sub- ‘below’ and unda ‘wave’. The final one for a narrow stretch of water is Middle English from Old Norse sund ‘swimming, strait’, related to swim.