Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Agreement; harmony; accord.
  • noun Close correspondence of sounds.
  • noun The repetition of consonants or of a consonant pattern, especially at the ends of words, as in blank and think or strong and string.
  • noun Music A simultaneous combination of sounds not requiring resolution to another combination of sounds for finality of effect and conventionally regarded as harmonious or pleasing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Accord or agreement of sounds; specifically, in music, a simultaneous combination of two tones that is, by itself, both agreeable and final in effect.
  • noun A state of agreement or accordance; congruity; harmony; consistency: as, the consonance of opinions among judges; the consonance of a ritual to the Scriptures.
  • noun The sympathetic vibration of a sonorous body, as a piano-string, when another of the same pitch is sounded near it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Mus.) Accord or agreement of sounds produced simultaneously, as a note with its third, fifth, and eighth.
  • noun Agreement or congruity; harmony; accord; consistency; suitableness.
  • noun obsolete Friendship; concord.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun prosody The repetition of consonant sounds, but not vowels as in assonance.
  • noun harmony; agreement; lack of discordance

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the property of sounding harmonious
  • noun the repetition of consonants (or consonant patterns) especially at the ends of words

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin consonantia

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word consonance.

Examples

  • Perhaps because it was in consonance with Nazi doctrine and "efficiency" promulgated by the German High Command such as was reflected in a message received by Adolf Diekmann, the commander of the Nazi troops that committed the Oradour atrocities, on the eve of that massacre:

    Dorian de Wind: France: Impressions of a Passer-By Dorian de Wind 2010

  • Perhaps because it was in consonance with Nazi doctrine and "efficiency" promulgated by the German High Command such as was reflected in a message received by Adolf Diekmann, the commander of the Nazi troops that committed the Oradour atrocities, on the eve of that massacre:

    Dorian de Wind: France: Impressions of a Passer-By Dorian de Wind 2010

  • Perhaps because it was in consonance with Nazi doctrine and "efficiency" promulgated by the German High Command such as was reflected in a message received by Adolf Diekmann, the commander of the Nazi troops that committed the Oradour atrocities, on the eve of that massacre:

    Dorian de Wind: France: Impressions of a Passer-By Dorian de Wind 2010

  • We will review the order carefully and issue appropriate guidance to ensure that we continue to act in consonance with the law and with policy direction.

    Things Are Changing | ATTACKERMAN 2009

  • So the "key aspirations" of egalitarian liberals and social conservatives are "broadly in consonance" with ruining the lives of poor immigrants in order to cut native-born yuppies down to size?

    Malevolent Aspirations, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • Perhaps because it was in consonance with Nazi doctrine and "efficiency" promulgated by the German High Command such as was reflected in a message received by Adolf Diekmann, the commander of the Nazi troops that committed the Oradour atrocities, on the eve of that massacre:

    Dorian de Wind: France: Impressions of a Passer-By Dorian de Wind 2010

  • This despite the fact that the solution is broadly in consonance with the key aspirations of egalitarian liberals and social conservatives alike: the solution, of course, is to reverse the steady shift from household production to market production.

    Malevolent Aspirations, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • I believe Buzz is referring to the relatively (last 10-15 years) recent spate of film and tv SF with photorealistic (or, let's say, extremely slick) visual effects that inevitably and by nature of the format and genre, compress action and timescales in consonance with bite-size time and attention spans.

    MIND MELD: Is Science Fiction Responsible for the Lack of Public Interest in Space Exploration? 2008

  • In other words, duration of BRM should be in consonance with the requirement of time to sufficiently discuss all technical issues raised.

    Archive 2008-03-25 Venky 2008

  • In other words, duration of BRM should be in consonance with the requirement of time to sufficiently discuss all technical issues raised.

    India's comments on BRM to ISO Venky 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.