cacophony
Americannoun
-
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.
-
a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds.
The sound effects included a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
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Music. frequent use of harsh, discordant notes or chords that seem to be patternless and without connection to each other.
noun
-
harsh discordant sound; dissonance
-
the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of cacophony
First recorded in 1650–60; from New Latin cacophonia, from Greek kakophōnía; equivalent to caco- + -phony
Explanation
A cacophony is a mishmash of unpleasant sounds, often at loud volume. It's what you'd hear if you gave instruments to a group of four-year-olds and asked them to play one of Beethoven's symphonies. A cacophony is a jarring, discordant mix of sounds that have no business being played together. When the orchestra tunes up before a show, it sounds like a cacophony because each musician is playing a completely different tune, at different times, and at different volumes. Once the show begins, that cacophony had better turn into a melody, or audiences will demand a refund. This allegedly occurred during the first time Igor Stravinsky's score for the ballet "The Rite of Spring" was performed because its difficult composition and discordant tone was shocking.
Vocabulary lists containing cacophony
Fahrenheit 451
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Rhetoric
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Grade 10, List 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The cacophony is yielding more questions than answers.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 19, 2026
Several members have claimed that Swalwell’s alleged behavior was an open secret amid a cacophony of rumors on social media of other potential offenders.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 14, 2026
And in floundering the ending, “Undertone” reminds us that tranquility can be far more unsettling than a cacophony of sight and sound.
From Salon • Mar. 15, 2026
But there was a cacophony of jeers and whistles throughout the break which lasted about a minute.
From BBC • Mar. 2, 2026
A cacophony of boos and catcalls rolled down the grandstand for a full two minutes.
From "Seabiscuit: An American Legend" by Laura Hillenbrand
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
