sonant

American  

[soh-nuhnt] / ˈsoʊ nənt /

adjective

1. sounding; having sound.

2. Phonetics. voiced (opposed to surd).

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noun

Phonetics.

1. a speech sound that by itself makes a syllable or subordinates to itself the other sounds in the syllable; a syllabic sound (opposed to consonant).

2. a voiced sound (opposed to surd).

3. (in Indo-European) a sonorant.

sonant British  

/ ˈsəʊnənt /

adjective

1. phonetics denoting a voiced sound capable of forming a syllable or syllable nucleus

2. inherently possessing, exhibiting, or producing a sound

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noun

1. phonetics a voiced sound belonging to the class of frictionless continuants or nasals (l, r, m, n, ŋ ) considered from the point of view of being a vowel and, in this capacity, able to form a syllable or syllable nucleus

Other Word Forms

• sonance
  noun
• intersonant
  adjective
• nonsonant
  adjective
• sonantal
  adjective
• sonantic
  adjective
• unsonant
  adjective
• unsonantal
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of sonant

1840–50; < Latin sonānt- (stem of sonāns ), present participle of sonāre to sound ¹. See son-, -ant

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

sonant

Dr. Gutheil cautions that no accurate explanation is apt to be simple: more likely in Hinckley's mind was a dis sonant snarl of emotions and delusions, which in concert led him to Washington.

From Time Magazine Archive

The sonant and the interval of each element were measured, and all the pauses except the stanza pause were recorded.

From Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 Containing Sixteen Experimental Investigations from the Harvard Psychological Laboratory. by Hugo Münsterberg

It is classed as a surd spirant, its corresponding sonant spirant being v, which is distinguished from f by being pronounced with voice instead of breath, as may be perceived by pronouncing ef, ev.

From The New Gresham Encyclopedia Volume 4, Part 3: Estremoz to Felspar by Various

We may say that the sonant consonant and its corresponding surd are the hard and soft forms of the same sound.

From The Art Of Writing & Speaking The English Language Word-Study and Composition & Rhetoric by Sherwin Cody

Far to the right lay what had once been called horresco referens the duckpond, where—"Dulce sonant tenui gutture carmen aves."

From My Novel — Complete by Edward Bulwer Lytton, Baron Lytton

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