consonant

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Being in agreement or accord: remarks consonant with our own beliefs.
2. adj. Corresponding or alike in sound, as words or syllables.
3. adj. Harmonious in sound or tone.
4. n. A speech sound produced by a partial or complete obstruction of the air stream by any of various constrictions of the speech organs, such as (p), (f), (r), (w), and (h).
5. n. A letter or character representing such a speech sound.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Sounding together; agreeing in sound; specifically, in music, having an agreeable and complete or final effect: said of a combination of sounds.
2. Having or emitting like sounds.
3. Harmonious; agreeing; congruous; consistent: followed generally by to, sometimes by with: as, this rule is consonant to Scripture and reason.
4. [Attrib. use of noun.] Consisting of or relating to consonants; consonantal.
5. n. An alphabetic element other than a vowel; one of the closer, less resonant and continuable, of the sounds making up a spoken alphabet; an articulate utterance which is combined, to form a syllable, with another opener utterance called a vowel. Consonants are the closer, and vowels the opener, of the sounds that make up the alphabetic scale or system of a language. But there is no absolute line of distinction between the two classes; and the openest of the consonants may be and are used as vowels also. Thus, the same I-sound is consonant in apply, and vowel in apple; n is consonant in burned, but vowel in burden; and in some languages, as Sanskrit and Polish, r is much used as a vowel. On the other hand, y and w are hardly, if at all, distinguishable from ee and oo. Such consonants, as standing near the boundary between consonant and vowel, are often called semi-vowels (also liquids). According to their degree of closeness, consonants are divided into mutes (or stops, or checks, or explosives), as b and p, which involve a complete cutting off of the passage of the breath; fricatives (spirants and sibilants, etc.), as th and dh (ŦH), f and v, s and z, in which a rustling or friction of the breath through a nearly closed position of the organs is the conspicuous element; nasals, as n, m, and ng, accompanied with admission of the intonated breath to the nose and its resonance there; and semi-vowel or liquid sounds, as already illustrated. According to the organs used in producing them, they are divided into labials, made with the lips, as p, b, f, v, m; dentals or linguals, made with the tip of the tongue at or near the teeth, as t, d, th, dh (ŦH), n; palatals or gutturals, made with the back of the tongue, as k, g, ng; and some languages have various other classes. Then, according as they are made with simple breath, or with breath vocalized or made sonant in the larynx, they are divided into surd or breathed, as p, t, f, s, etc., and sonant or voiced or vocal, as b, d, v, z, etc. (sometimes wrongly distinguished as hard and soft, as strong and weak, as sharp and flat, and so on). See these various terms, and syllable.

Wiktionary

1. n. 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.
2. n. A letter representing the sound of a consonant.
3. adj. Characterized by harmony or agreement.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Having agreement; congruous; consistent; according; -- usually followed by with or to.
2. adj. Having like sounds.
3. adj. (Mus.) harmonizing together; accordant.
4. adj. Of or pertaining to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.
5. n. An articulate sound which in utterance is usually combined and sounded with an open sound called a vowel; a member of the spoken alphabet other than a vowel; also, a letter or character representing such a sound.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a speech sound that is not a vowel
2. adj. involving or characterized by harmony
3. n. a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken consonant
4. adj. in keeping