cacophonous

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

• (General American) IPA^(key): /kəˈkɑfənəs/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /kəˈkɒfənəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

cacophonous (comparative more cacophonous, superlative most cacophonous)

1. Containing, consisting of, or producing harsh, unpleasant or discordant sounds.

   Synonyms: inharmonious, unmusical, unmelodic

   Antonyms: harmonious, musical, euphonious

   • 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.