cacophony

[ kuh-kof-uh-nee ]

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.

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

cacophony

/ kəˈkɒfənɪ /

noun

1. harsh discordant sound; dissonance
2. the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language

Other Words From

• cac·o·phon·ic [kak-, uh, -, fon, -ik], adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cacophony¹

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

Example Sentences

It’s akin to playing neuronal “piano keys” into a melody that makes sense to the brain, rather than simultaneously pounding them into neurological cacophony.

From Singularity Hub 

On Saturday night, the walls of the Kennedy Center Opera House capably blocked out the celebratory cacophony of horns and hollering that overtook the city.

From Washington Post

Overtoning allows us to incorporate plenty of herbs, spices or other closely related ingredients in a dish without it turning into a cacophony of contrasting elements.

From Popular-Science

Working at home is essentially like working in the most extreme open plan office—prone to the cacophony and clutter we once complained about when we were actually sitting at a proper desk in the office.

From Quartz

Enterprise location marketers definitely want choice but not the confusion and cacophony of too-many companies, which has defined this segment over the past half decade.

From Search Engine Land

Most Cacophony events were one-off affairs, just enough to jam the culture a bit before moving on.

From The Daily Beast

“The idea was to mess with the concept of Christmas,” recalled John Law, an original Cacophony member.

From The Daily Beast

Any upcoming release of a new Apple product guarantees a deafening cacophony of idle speculation from tech sites.

From The Daily Beast

Badges hanging from their necks boast small national flags, and a cacophony of accents represents more than 20 countries.

From The Daily Beast

For Clinton and the Democrats, the cacophony out of Arizona is music to their ears.

From The Daily Beast

His huge hand caught the hypnotic stone and swept it into crashing, ear-splitting cacophony against the cold steel bulkhead.

From Project Gutenberg

You think youse The rest was jumbled up or lost in the usual cacophony of the thoroughfare.

From Project Gutenberg

Human intrusion brought a constant cacophony of cries and chattered complaints from birds and beasts.

From Project Gutenberg

Consequently they have sacrificed their Italian birthright of melody for all kinds of cacophony.

From Project Gutenberg

The old Flemish joyousness of colour passed into a consumptive cacophony.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• noise