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Which sound could be described as a cacophony?

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cacophony

American  

[kuh-kof-uh-nee] / kəˈkɒf ə ni /

noun

• cacophonies
  plural

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.

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cacophony British  

/ kəˈkɒfənɪ /

noun

1. harsh discordant sound; dissonance

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

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• cacophonic
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• cacophonies
  plural

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.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cacophony cacophonies

Substitute Keith Evans replied for a rocked Kerry, but Jack Carney's nailed two-pointed effort put Mayo 1-14 to 1-9 ahead and amid a barely conceivable cacophony of noise from the Croke Park stands.

From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026

The cacophony is yielding more questions than answers.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026

Kingsley pantomimes resisting repeated entreaties amid the cacophony.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026

The event, bringing together users and fans of the Twitch video livestreaming service, displayed a cacophony of colours and sounds across the multiple stands, punctuated by shows by drag queens and a Minecraft tournament.

From Barron's ● May 30, 2026

Every phone vibrates and dings in unison, a strange and troubling cacophony.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

But much of the prominent fiction of 2022 met the moment and captured this fragmentation, thick with code-switching, style-shifting and cacophonies of anxious narration.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2022

The cacophony of viewpoints in a nation unafraid to express them seemed to yield what such cacophonies often yield: muddle.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 21, 2022

But the score is beautiful, with patterns and loops and cacophonies that echo Evan’s mind.

From New York Times ● Aug. 8, 2016

The tracks I keep coming back to highlight the cacophonies of California lo-fi pop, carnival ambiance, and sounds that can only be described as straight off the Teletubbies cutting room floor.

From Slate ● Nov. 25, 2014

He eliminated from French verse hiatus, enjambement, inversions, false and imperfect rhymes, and licenses or cacophonies of all kinds.

From A History of Literary Criticism in the Renaissance With special reference to the influence of Italy in the formation and development of modern classicism by Spingarn, Joel Elias

Related Words

• noise