harmonic

[ hahr-mon-ik ]

/ hɑrˈmɒn ɪk /

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See synonyms for: harmonic / harmonics on Thesaurus.com

adjective

pertaining to harmony, as distinguished from melody and rhythm.

marked by harmony; in harmony; concordant; consonant.

Physics. of, relating to, or noting a series of oscillations in which each oscillation has a frequency that is an integral multiple of the same basic frequency.

Mathematics.

(of a set of values) related in a manner analogous to the frequencies of tones that are consonant.
capable of being represented by sine and cosine functions.
(of a function) satisfying the Laplace equation.

noun

Music. overtone (def. 1).

Physics. a single oscillation whose frequency is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency.

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Origin of harmonic

1560–70; <Latin harmonicus<Greek harmonikós musical, suitable. See harmony, -ic

OTHER WORDS FROM harmonic

har·mon·i·cal·ly, adverbhar·mon·i·cal·ness, nounnon·har·mon·ic, adjectiveun·har·mon·ic, adjective

un·har·mon·i·cal·ly, adverb

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use harmonic in a sentence

Once we had those three numbers for each of the starting Super Bowl quarterbacks, we averaged them together using the harmonic mean rather than a simple average.
Brady vs. Mahomes is one of the greatest Super Bowl QB matchups ever. We ranked all 55.|Scott Allen, Neil Greenberg|February 4, 2021|Washington Post
He gets sounds that aren’t necessarily guitar sounds — a lot of harmonics, textures that happen just because of how he picks.
Guitar legend Eddie Van Halen dies of cancer at 65|radmarya|October 6, 2020|Fortune
She had access to fancy software tools like the “harmonic scanner,” which detects patterns in currency fluctuations, cryptocurrency, and more to help traders make informed decisions, she says.
Inside the weird new world of social ‘forex’ trading—where you sign up friends, and some report risky red flags for investors|Brooke Henderson|September 20, 2020|Fortune
As many solvers noticed, that sum inside the parentheses is none other than the Nth harmonic number!
Are You A Pinball Wizard?|Zach Wissner-Gross|July 24, 2020|FiveThirtyEight

The tortoise didn’t finish exactly 12,367 minutes into the race — the sum of the first 12,367 terms of the harmonic series is in fact greater than 10.
Are You A Pinball Wizard?|Zach Wissner-Gross|July 24, 2020|FiveThirtyEight
The cartoons zing, whirr, and reverberate harmonically, making each entry a sort of duet.
Well, La Ti Da: Stephin Merritt’s Winning Little Words of Scrabble|David Bukszpan|October 11, 2014|DAILY BEAST
I was contending that the joy of smoking increases harmonically with the weight of tobacco consumed, within reasonable limits.
Shandygaff|Christopher Morley
In writing the third species in all parts, notes appearing simultaneously should be harmonically related.
A Treatise on Simple Counterpoint in Forty Lessons|Friedrich J. Lehmann
So rare is it, that I have seen it stated by good authorities that it is never used harmonically.
The Browning Cyclopdia|Edward Berdoe
All notes exactly one or more octaves apart are regarded as harmonically identical.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 1|Various
This is the reason why the line AB is said to be divided harmonically.
The Teaching of Geometry|David Eugene Smith

British Dictionary definitions for harmonic

harmonic

/ (hɑːˈmɒnɪk) /

adjective

of, involving, producing, or characterized by harmony; harmonious

music of, relating to, or belonging to harmony

maths

capable of expression in the form of sine and cosine functions
of or relating to numbers whose reciprocals form an arithmetic progression

physics of or concerned with an oscillation that has a frequency that is an integral multiple of a fundamental frequency

physics of or concerned with harmonics

noun

physics music a component of a periodic quantity, such as a musical tone, with a frequency that is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency. The first harmonic is the fundamental, the second harmonic (twice the fundamental frequency) is the first overtone, the third harmonic (three times the fundamental frequency) is the second overtone, etc

music (not in technical use) overtone: in this case, the first overtone is the first harmonic, etc

Derived forms of harmonic

harmonically, adverb

Word Origin for harmonic

C16: from Latin harmonicus relating to harmony

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for harmonic

harmonic

[ här-mŏn′ĭk ]

Noun

Periodic motion whose frequency is a whole-number multiple of some fundamental frequency. The motion of objects or substances that vibrate or oscillate in a regular fashion, such as the strings of musical instruments, can be analyzed as a combination of a fundamental frequency and higher harmonics.♦ Harmonics above the first harmonic (the fundamental frequency) in sound waves are called overtones. The first overtone is the second harmonic, the second overtone is the third harmonic, and so on.

Adjective

Related to or having the properties of such periodic motion.

harmonic

Origin of harmonic

OTHER WORDS FROM harmonic

Words related to harmonic

How to use harmonic in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for harmonic

Derived forms of harmonic

Word Origin for harmonic

Scientific definitions for harmonic