cacophony

[ kuh-kof-uh-nee ]
See synonyms for: cacophonycacophonic on Thesaurus.com

noun,plural ca·coph·o·nies.
  1. harsh or unpleasant discordance of sound; dissonance: After living in the country, it's difficult for me to adjust to the cacophony produced by city traffic.

  2. a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: The sound effects included a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.

  1. Music. frequent use of harsh, discordant notes or chords that seem to be patternless and without connection to each other.

Origin of cacophony

1
First recorded in 1650–60; from New Latin cacophonia, from Greek kakophōnía; equivalent to caco- + -phony

Other words from cacophony

  • cac·o·phon·ic [kak-uh-fon-ik], /ˌkæk əˈfɒn ɪk/, adjective

Words Nearby cacophony

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cacophony in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for cacophony

cacophony

/ (kəˈkɒfənɪ) /


nounplural -nies
  1. harsh discordant sound; dissonance

  2. the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012