Definition of dissonant
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dissonant was our Word of the Day on 09/16/2007. Hear the podcast!
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Examples of dissonant in a Sentence
a dissonant chorus of noises arose from the busy construction site
Recent Examples of dissonant from the Web
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The fact that North Korea had not actually agreed to meet the Trump administration’s stated demands did not matter — that dissonant bit of footage could be left on the cutting room floor.
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Last year, the Tour picked up a complementary voice, albeit a dissonant one.
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There is no doubt that her personal contradictions are heightened by the brilliant, dissonant images in her music videos.
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What viewers like me want is an ordinary house rendered unsettling through sound design and dissonant music.
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In Bruges’ Starts streaming: June 16 The medieval Belgian city of Bruges is a dissonant setting for this first feature by the playwright Martin McDonagh.
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The Mainly Mozart Festival opened last week with a late Baroque era composer’s dissonant chord that seemed to look ahead to the anything-goes harmony of the 20th century.
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The vocal writing is similarly evocative; Josephine’s high, florid lines recall Chinese opera, and dissonant harmonies of a lullaby sung by Danny’s mother also seem to come from another world.
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During the drought, when the hive mind became convinced that California was about to turn into an anarchic desert hellscape, the sight of all these new trees going in was dissonant.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'dissonant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Did You Know?
The root of "dissonant" is the Latin verb sonare. Can you guess what "sonare" means? Here's a hint: some related derivatives are "sonata," "supersonic," and "resonance." Does it sound to you as if "sonare" has something to do with sound? If so, you're right. In fact, sonare means "to sound, is related to the Latin noun sonus (meaning "sound"), and is an ancestor of the English word sound. "Dissonant" includes the negative prefix dis-. What is "dissonant," therefore, sounds inharmonic, conflicting, or clashing.
dissonant Synonyms
Synonyms
cacophonous, discordant, inharmonious, unmelodious, unmusical, unvocal;
Antonyms
Near Antonyms
dulcet, euphonious, mellifluent, mellifluous, mellow, melodic, sweet, tuneful;
quavering, trilling, warbling;
agreeable, appealing, pleasant;
cadenced, lilting, lyric, lyrical, rhythmic (or rhythmical);
Related Words
blaring, clanging, clangorous, clashing, clattering, dinning, grating, harsh, jangling, jangly, jarring, metallic, noisy, raspy, raucous, scratching, screeching, shrill, squeaky, strident;
DISSONANT Defined for English Language Learners
Definition of dissonant for English Language Learners
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: not in agreement with something
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music : not in harmony
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for dissonant
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