sonority
Americannoun
-
sonorities
plural
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of sonority
1515–25; < Medieval Latin sonōritās < Late Latin: melodiousness, equivalent to Latin sonōr ( us ) ( see sonorous) + -itās -ity
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.
See Examples For:
While it’s quicker and faster than its predecessors, much of the focus seems to be on delivering emotional content rather than stopwatch performance—most obviously, in the presence and sonority of the engine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2025
The arresting analog engineering of the Royce Hall sessions are where you witness the marvelous Mehta Sound — where each sonority has a personality, even a kind of chutzpah.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 10, 2023
Bax was a true partner at the piano, adjusting almost magically to every interpretive twist or turn by Hadelich, and fully providing the kind of near-orchestral sonority the score requires.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 11, 2021
By the end, as Marnie sings “I’m free!” in upward-vaulting intervals, she is accompanied by an intricate, vital new sonority of piccolos, celesta, harp, and bowed crotales.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 29, 2018
For, by omitting this note you do alter the tone colour of the chord as well as its sonority.
From Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered by Josef Hofmann
Isolated finger gestures, sometimes reaching upward, added telling small details to Mr. Morris’s choreographic momentum, which kept a heady pace with the composer’s insistently pounding, punchy sonorities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
These consisted of a Rameau/Handel program, studies in luxuriant sonorities.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 1, 2025
Since the 1990s we’ve grown accustomed to hip-hop importing and metabolizing the sonorities and techniques of jazz.
From New York Times ● Jul. 5, 2023
“Overstory Overture” blends electronic and instrumental sonorities with DiDonato’s voice and acting to portray the book’s protagonist, the dendrologist Patricia Westerford.
From New York Times ● Mar. 6, 2023
If we could listen to them all at once, fully orchestrated, in their immense ensemble, we might become aware of the counterpoint, the balance of tones and timbres and harmonics, the sonorities.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
