cacophonous

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word cacophonous. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word cacophonous, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say cacophonous in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word cacophonous you have here. The definition of the word cacophonous will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofcacophonous, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

English

WOTD – 3 January 2013, 3 January 2015

Etymology

From Ancient Greek κακός (kakós, “bad”) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “voice”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

cacophonous (comparative more cacophonous, superlative most cacophonous)

  1. Containing, consisting of, or producing harsh, unpleasant or discordant sounds.
    • 1961 November 10, Joseph Heller, “The Texan”, in Catch-22 , New York, N.Y.: Simon and Schuster, →OCLC, page 46:
      […] Huple had rescued them just in time by seizing the controls back from Dobbs and leveling the ship out almost as suddenly right back in the middle of the buffeting layer of cacophonous flak from which they had escaped successfully only a moment before.
    • 1993, Mike Leigh, Naked, spoken by Brian (Peter Wight):
      The good thing about this job is that it gives me time and space to contemplate the future at my leisure, whilst the city sleeps, free from the cacophonous curiosity of the hoi polloi.
    • 2006, Everett True, Nirvana: The Biography, Da Capo Press, published 2007, →ISBN, page 58:
      The first time I saw the NYC quartet [Sonic Youth] was in 1983 for their Confusion Is Sex album, when they filled The Venue in Victoria, London with a cacophonous maelstrom of mangled sounds that still reverberates, more than two decades on.
    • 2011, Fern Michaels, To Taste the Wine, Kensington Books, published 2011, →ISBN, page 153:
      […] and the cacophonous clatter of pots and pans accompanied the vociferous complaints of the ship's cook.
    • 2012, Michael D. Breed & Janice Moore, Animal Behavior, Academic Press (2012), →ISBN, page 199 (image caption):
      A colony of pelicans can be cacophonous.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

Translations

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia