Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

consonant

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Remove ads

English

WOTD – 30 April 2012

Etymology

From Middle English consonant or consonaunt, from Old French consonant, from Latin cōnsonāns (“sounding with”), from the prefix con- (“with”) + the present participle sonāns (“sounding”), from sonāre (“to sound”). The Latin is a calque of Ancient Greek σύμφωνον (súmphōnon).

Pronunciation

Noun

More information Examples (letter) ...

consonant (plural consonants)

  2. (phonetics) A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the dominant sound of a syllable, the dominant sound generally being a vowel.
    Hyponym: obstruent
  4. A letter representing the sound of a consonant.
    • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
      Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
    • 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 4, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
      “Tell me, has right anything to do with the law?” I asked. “You have used the wrong initial consonant,” he smiled in answer. “Might?” I queried; and he nodded his head.

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → Swahili: konsonanti

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

consonant (comparative more consonant, superlative most consonant)

  1. Consistent, harmonious, compatible, or in agreement.
    • 1710, William Beveridge, The true nature of the Christian church, the office of its ministers, and the means of grace administred by them explain'd. In twelve sermons:
      Each one pretends that his opinion […] is consonant to the words there used.
    • 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, “The Rev. Mr. Carter, Parson-Publican”, in Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events:
      Cheerfulness, even gaiety, is consonant with every species of virtue and practice of religion, and I think it inconsistent only with impiety and vice.
    • 1946, United States Supreme Court, Pennekamp v. Florida 328 U.S. 331,334
      This essential right of the courts to be free of intimidation and coercion was held to be consonant with a recognition that freedom of the press must be allowed in the broadest scope compatible with the supremacy of order.
  2. Having the same sound.
    • 1645-1650, James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elianae
      consonant words and syllables
  4. (music) Harmonizing together; accordant.
    consonant tones; consonant chords
  5. Of or relating to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.
    • 1813, Thomas Moore, Intercepted Letters, or the Two-Penny Post-Bag:
      No Russian whose dissonant consonant name / Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.

Quotations

Antonyms

Translations

See also

Remove ads

Aragonese

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin cōnsonantem.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /konsoˈnan/
  • Syllabification: con‧so‧nant
  • Rhymes: -an

Adjective

consonant (plural consonants)

  1. consonant

Noun

consonant f

  1. consonant

Derived terms

Catalan

French

Latin

Romanian

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads
Remove ads