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 culture trap about pageants is that they were often treated like a societal measuring stick — and came up dissonantly, mortifyingly short.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 25, 2023

But if Ustvolskaya’s few, grim compositions are works of violent extremes, the brutally loud cluster chords that often smash their way dissonantly through them are tempered with moments of quiet, rapt tranquillity.

From New York Times • Apr. 15, 2022

Wikipedia says confidently that “I Love You, California” is played at the funerals of California governors, but it sounds too dissonantly peppy for that.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 18, 2021

The first five notes remind Mr. Levit of a later piece, Schumann’s song cycle “Dichterliebe,” which begins dissonantly with a C sharp quickly followed by a D two octaves lower.

From New York Times • Jan. 7, 2021

The earth lay still and peaceful, wrapped in shadow, while the pearly grayness changed to a pale ruby gleam in the eastern sky; but that beat of human feet jarred dissonantly through nature’s harmonies.

From The Dust of Conflict by Bindloss, Harold