dissonance

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English

Etymology

From Latin dissonantia via Middle French.

Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ˈdɪsənəns/, /ˈdɪsənɪns/
  • (file)

Noun

dissonance (countable and uncountable, plural dissonances)

  1. A harsh, discordant combination of sounds.
  2. (music) Conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding.
  3. A state of disagreement or conflict.
  4. (countable) An instance of disharmony or disjunction; a clash.
    • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 106:
      In this polyphony of images in the unconscious which is beyond and outside historical time, there are complex harmonies but no dissonances: the images do not clash, but that, of course, is an aesthetic judgment and not a scientific one.

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Anagrams

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin dissonantia.

Pronunciation

Noun

dissonance f (plural dissonances)

  1. (music) dissonance (conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding)
    Antonyms: consonance, harmonie
  2. dissonance
    Antonyms: assonance, harmonie

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Further reading