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Definition of dissonant
1 : marked by dissonance : discordant
2 : incongruous
3 : harmonically unresolved
dissonantly
adverbFrom the M-W Editors
dissonant was our Word of the Day on 09/16/2007. Hear the podcast!
Theme music by Joshua Stamper ©2006 New Jerusalem Music/ASCAP
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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But its impulse to alternate these storylines with sitcom-ready moments has never felt so dissonant.
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These dissonant readings point to an increasing mismatch between workers’ skills and the roles employers are seeking to fill, a conflict measured by the Beveridge curve, which tracks the relationship between unemployment and job vacancies.
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The bear can be seen wandering around the apartment and at one point went to a piano, putting its paws on the keys playing a few loud and dissonant notes.
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Adding to the dissonant image, Trump’s wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, stood next to the president, silently staring off into the distance, their somber expressions heightened by their all black outfits.
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Adding to the dissonant image, Trump’s wife, Melania, and daughter, Ivanka, stood next to the president, silently staring off into the distance, their somber expressions heightened by their all black outfits.
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His quartet’s latest album, The Shape of Jazz to Come, released a few weeks earlier, had divided critics with its dissonant melodies and near total lack of harmonic structure.
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The ad debuting Thursday opens with an almost upside-down cityscape backed by a dissonant, techno-sounding track and goes on to show young adults navigating career and life choices.
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The dialogue is all sung, and a lot of numbers interrupt pleasant melodies with harshly dissonant interpolations.
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.
Origin and Etymology of dissonant
Middle English dissonaunte, from Latin dissonant-, dissonans, present participle of dissonare to be discordant, from dis- + sonare to sound — more at sound
DISSONANT Defined for English Language Learners
dissonant
playDefinition of dissonant for English Language Learners
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: not in agreement with something
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music : not in harmony
Learn More about dissonant
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for dissonant
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