sounding

1 of 2

adjective

sound·​ing ˈsau̇n-diŋ How to pronounce sounding (audio)
soundingly adverb

sounding

2 of 2

noun

1
a
: measurement of depth especially with a sounding line
b
: the depth so ascertained
c
soundings plural : a place or part of a body of water where a hand sounding line will reach bottom
2
: measurement of atmospheric conditions at various heights
3
: a probe, test, or sampling of opinion or intention

Examples of sounding in a Sentence

Noun The sailors were taking soundings as the ship approached the coast.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Her attempt to package her experience as an advice book has the feel of what Freud called secondary revision, the effort to master chaotic psychic material by shoehorning it into a reasonable-sounding narrative. Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2022 In early 2013, Mikaela Sanford responded to a Craigslist job posting for a small Sacramento company with mundane-sounding responsibilities: communicating with contractors, overseeing data entry and handling client correspondence. Melissa Korn, WSJ, 20 Aug. 2022 The Sonos Move is a full-sounding wireless speaker that works over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Ars Staff, Ars Technica, 8 June 2022 The European Commission also defended the application saying that similar-sounding or homonymous names were not an adequate reason for rejecting a request. Rebecca Ann Hughes, Forbes, 16 Sep. 2021 The group’s simple-sounding but highly sophisticated songs have endured since the group, consisting of two married couples, split amid the breakup of the two couples in 1982. Jem Aswad, Variety, 2 Sep. 2021
Noun
Scans and soundings of the ground below one group of buildings showed extensive terracing and retaining walls. Franz Lidz Meghan Dhaliwal, New York Times, 23 Dec. 2023 With música Mexicana, a lot of the lyrics and the melodies are very traditional sounding but the production delves house music or dembow. Thania Garcia, Variety, 19 Dec. 2023 Brownstein said some of the concern may be due to surges seen with variants in the past such as the delta variant in summer 2021, leading to a sounding of the alarm. Mary Kekatos, ABC News, 15 Aug. 2023 That robotic cadence Alexa and other voice assistants has softened to something much more natural sounding. Wes Davis, The Verge, 21 Sep. 2023 After the sounding of a gong, Bedria Sanders enters on harmonium, producing a drone that moves toward us and recedes, a sound that Pharoah mimics with long, undulating tones. Peter Rubin, Longreads, 19 Sep. 2023 His recent European tour found the storied Irish troubadour and notorious curmudgeon sounding re-energized and earning rave reviews for shows that averaged 20 songs a night, all by artists who influenced him in his youth. George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 31 Aug. 2023 The Metropolitan District’s will do routine tests and public sounding of its flood warning notification sirens at 1 and 7 p.m. Oct. 26 and the public sounding will affect West Hartland, Colebrook, Riverton and a portion of Barkhamsted, according to the agency. Staff, Hartford Courant, 21 Oct. 2022 Sociology has since become a highly respected branch of Russian academia, and several polling agencies take constant social soundings on almost every conceivable topic. Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 24 Apr. 2023

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

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Noun

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Time Traveler
The first known use of sounding was in the 14th century

Dictionary Entries Near sounding

Cite this Entry

“Sounding.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sounding. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

sounding

noun
sound·​ing
ˈsau̇n-diŋ
1
a
: measurement of depth especially with a sounding line
b
: the depth found by sounding
2
: an investigation, test, or sampling of opinion or intention
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