Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In musical acoustics, a tone together with all its partial tones or harmonics: opposed to a simple or pure tone.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • At times, the image shifts entirely through what Freud called klang associations, or sheer phonic similarity.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XIX No 3 1993

  • Having thus shown that the fundamental note is dependent upon the tension of the vocal cords -- the reed portion of the instrument -- and the quality, timbre, or "klang" upon the resonator, I will pass on to the formation of syllables and words of articulate speech by the combination of vowel sounds and consonants.

    The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song 1889

  • To the extent that those voices could on a given evening write themselves through Kafka, Kafka could experience even the ghastliest of them, even the sirens with their hideous claws and sterile wombs, even Gregor Samsa, as beauty itself: "[S] ie konnten nicht dafür, dass die Klage so schön klang" [ "They couldn't help it that their lament sounded so beautiful"] (Parables 92).

    Kafka and the Coincidence of Opposites 2007

  • November 22, 2005 3: 43 PM bibliobibuli said ... oh dear ... beginning to feel guilty as all economic activity in the klang valley grinds to a halt ...

    Reading Map Sharon Bakar 2005

  • Des Manns mir seltsam klang, seltsam und freundlich --

    The Faust-Legend and Goethe's 'Faust'

  • I am lying on my back, the twilight does mistily bluish miracles through the slit over the whang-klang.

    The Enormous Room 1928

  • Rackety, clackety, klang, klong! and down the tunnel came a train of cars.

    Here and Now Story Book Two- to seven-year-olds Lucy Sprague Mitchell 1922

  • He sat quite still watching out of the window and saying with the car; rackety, clackety, klang, klong; rackety, clackety, klang, klong!

    Here and Now Story Book Two- to seven-year-olds Lucy Sprague Mitchell 1922

  • Thirdly, the quality, timbre, or klang depends upon the overtones, in respect to which I could cite many experiments to prove that whenever a body vibrates, other bodies near it may be set in vibration, but only on condition that such bodies shall be capable themselves of producing the same note.

    The Brain and the Voice in Speech and Song 1889

  • It gave a sharp kling-klang like a suddenly struck cymbal -- and lo! ... the marble floor yawned asunder, and the banquet-table with all its costly fruits and flowers vanished underground with the swiftness of lightning!

    Ardath Marie Corelli 1889

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