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 word-painting in these arresting madrigal-style pieces, heightened by Gesualdo’s characteristic dissonances, is starkly immediate.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 4, 2025

Although León’s language is different from decade to decade, her ear for slightly bent phrases in the early works can help prepare a listener for the way she later learned to make starker dissonances dance.

From New York Times • Jul. 28, 2022

To be an immigrant is to live in a fractured multiverse, one riven with geographic, temporal and psychical dissonances.

From Washington Post • May 4, 2022

Everything about it, from the spare, enveloping details of Grant Major’s production design to the nerve-shredding dissonances of Jonny Greenwood’s score, directs our focus inward.

From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 16, 2021

In some modern music, many of these dissonances are heard as pleasant or interesting or jazzy and don't need to be resolved.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones