as in shrill
marked by or producing a harsh combination of sounds
a dissonant chorus of noises arose from the busy construction site
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Recent Examples of dissonant
His new film, Highest 2 Lowest, which opened Friday, flips Akira Kurosawa’s mannered 1963 staple, High and Low, into a rowdy, topical, laugh-out-loud romp (starring Denzel Washington, Jeffrey Wright, and A$AP Rocky) that’s as beautifully jarring as a dissonant sax solo.
—
Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 17 Aug. 2025
Still, the moody, dissonant synths were transfixing.
—Hazlitt, 30 July 2025
Older sirens are typically dual-tone, which creates a dissonant, ominous and attention-grabbing harmony that sends shivers down your spine.
—Claudia Levens, jsonline.com, 25 July 2025
By plunging the viewer into this chaotic inner world, Aster illustrates the dissonant appeal of being enmeshed in the perspective of, and maybe even rooting for, an individual committed to their belief in justice—even if that commitment can border on sordid.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 23 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for dissonant
Will Dukes, Rolling Stone, 17 Aug. 2025
Still, the moody, dissonant synths were transfixing.
—Hazlitt, 30 July 2025
Older sirens are typically dual-tone, which creates a dissonant, ominous and attention-grabbing harmony that sends shivers down your spine.
—Claudia Levens, jsonline.com, 25 July 2025
By plunging the viewer into this chaotic inner world, Aster illustrates the dissonant appeal of being enmeshed in the perspective of, and maybe even rooting for, an individual committed to their belief in justice—even if that commitment can border on sordid.
—David Sims, The Atlantic, 23 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for dissonant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dissonant
Adjective
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Arriving in January, the California Post will be Murdoch’s transplant of his right-leaning tabloid the New York Post, replete with shrill headlines and randy gossip.—
Peter Bart,
Deadline,
11 Sep. 2025
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One option is to simply double down on the existing approach and become shriller.—
Robert G. Eccles,
Forbes.com,
11 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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This simple yet powerful step turned noisy, unreliable photon signals into clean bursts of single photons — a breakthrough for future quantum technologies.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Oct. 2025
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How to stand out in such a noisy season?—
Laure Guilbault,
Vogue,
1 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
Bowling at run-hungry batters on largely unforgiving pitches in vast, cacophonous stadiums with huge outfields in front of a partisan and at times baying crowd — plenty of English bowlers have found bowling in Australia akin to a Sisyphean task.—
James Wallace,
New York Times,
22 Sep. 2025
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Mistakes do abound on Getting Killed, from cacophonous guitar skronks to stumble-drunk hi-hat taps that completely throw off a song’s rhythm.—
Jon Blistein,
Rolling Stone,
26 Aug. 2025
Adjective
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But the ever-reliable consumer is beginning to look shaky, courtesy of an unpleasant mix of a stagnating job market and sticky inflation.—
Eleanor Pringle,
Fortune,
29 Sep. 2025
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The power is accompanied by a loud, unpleasant exhaust note.—
James Raia,
Mercury News,
28 Sep. 2025
Adjective
-
Wallen, who has seemingly made a name for himself more so by generating controversy than for his music, struck a particularly discordant note when he was caught on camera using a racist slur in 2021.—
Mekishana Pierre,
Entertainment Weekly,
2 Oct. 2025
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But Tahoe opens things up to some truly discordant-looking color combinations.—
ArsTechnica,
ArsTechnica,
15 Sep. 2025
Adjective
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With a white leather upper, the pair uses the Air Jordan 5’s classic color blocking with a reflective metallic silver tongue and a mixture of Sunset orange and a Jordan staple Fire Red shade.—
Riley Jones,
Footwear News,
7 Oct. 2025
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Sánchez opted for a silver metallic mini dress with subtle boning and a black overcoat.—
Madison E. Goldberg,
PEOPLE,
7 Oct. 2025
Adjective
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Those songs remind Omara of real people and real events, political interludes whose senselessness and brutality have left unmusical lacunae in her life.—
Vinson Cunningham,
The New Yorker,
18 Dec. 2023
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His parents were unmusical Russian-Jewish immigrants who ran various businesses with mixed success.—
The Economist,
The Economist,
3 Oct. 2019
Adjective
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Setting Discordant Personal Goals A 2023 study published in Current Psychology finds that partners’ inharmonious goals can have detrimental effects on relationships.—
Mark Travers,
Forbes,
29 Mar. 2024
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For sixteen hours a week, Valentine hopes to share some melody in a place that, for some, can feel inharmonious.—
Washington Post,
Washington Post,
24 July 2021
Cite this Entry
“Dissonant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dissonant. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.
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