sonant

[soh-nuhnt]

adjective

1. sounding; sound; sounding; having sound.

2. Phonetics.,  voiced (surd ).

noun

Phonetics.

1. a speech sound that by itself makes a syllable or subordinates to itself the other sounds sound in the syllable; a syllabic sound (consonant ).

2. a voiced sound (surd ).

3. (in Indo-European) a sonorant.

sonant

/ səʊˈnæntəl, ˈsəʊnənt /

adjective

1. phonetics denoting a voiced sound capable of forming a syllable or syllable nucleus

2. inherently possessing, exhibiting, or producing a sound

noun

1. phonetics a voiced sound belonging to the class of frictionless continuants or nasals (l, r, m, n, ŋ ) considered from the point of view of being a vowel and, in this capacity, able to form a syllable or syllable nucleus

Other Word Forms

• sonantal adjective
• sonantic adjective
• intersonant adjective
• nonsonant adjective
• unsonant adjective
• unsonantal adjective
• sonance noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sonant¹

1840–50; < Latin sonānt- (stem of sonāns ), present participle of sonāre to sound ¹. See son-, -ant

Word History and Origins

Origin of sonant¹

C19: from Latin sonāns sounding, from sonāre to make a noise, resound

Example Sentences

His rich, dulcet tones made him a star of Princeton’s sonant circuit.

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But no physiological or psychological explanation of consonance is given by this fact, for the simple reason that in the acoustic nerve-process nothing corresponding to the periodicity of the sonant stimulus is discoverable.

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It is classed as a surd spirant, its corresponding sonant spirant being v, which is distinguished from f by being pronounced with voice instead of breath, as may be perceived by pronouncing ef, ev.

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It is a mute and labial, pronounced solely by the lips, and is distinguished from p by being sonant, that is, produced by the utterance of voice as distinguished from breath.

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I. E. sonant r and l become ri, li.

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