Definitions

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

  • noun A long, relatively wide body of water, larger than a strait or a channel, connecting larger bodies of water.
  • noun A long, wide ocean inlet.
  • noun Archaic The swim bladder of a fish.
  • adjective Free from defect, decay, or damage; in good condition.
  • adjective Free from disease or injury. synonym: healthy.
  • adjective Marked by or showing common sense and good judgment; levelheaded.
  • adjective Based on valid reasoning; having no logical flaws: synonym: valid.
  • adjective Logic Of or relating to an argument in which all the premises are true and the conclusion follows from the premises.
  • adjective Secure or stable.
  • adjective Financially secure or safe.
  • adjective Thorough; complete.
  • adjective Deep and unbroken; undisturbed.
  • adjective Compatible with an accepted point of view; orthodox.
  • adverb Thoroughly; deeply.
  • intransitive verb To measure the depth of (water), especially by means of a weighted line; fathom.
  • intransitive verb To try to learn the attitudes or opinions of.
  • intransitive verb To probe (a body cavity) with a sound.
  • intransitive verb To measure depth.
  • intransitive verb To dive swiftly downward. Used of a marine mammal or a fish.
  • intransitive verb To look into a possibility; investigate.
  • noun An instrument used to examine or explore body cavities, as for foreign bodies or other abnormalities, or to dilate strictures in them.
  • noun Vibrations transmitted through an elastic solid or a liquid or gas, with frequencies in the approximate range of 20 to 20,000 hertz, capable of being detected by human organs of hearing.
  • noun Transmitted vibrations of any frequency.
  • noun The sensation stimulated in the organs of hearing by such vibrations in the air or other medium.
  • noun Such sensations considered as a group.
  • noun A distinctive noise.
  • noun The distance over which something can be heard.
  • noun An articulation made by the vocal apparatus.
  • noun The distinctive character of such an articulation.
  • noun A mental impression; an implication.
  • noun Auditory material that is recorded, as for a movie.
  • noun Meaningless noise.
  • noun Music A distinctive style, as of an orchestra or singer.
  • noun Archaic Rumor; report.
  • intransitive verb To make or give forth a sound.
  • intransitive verb To be given forth as a sound.
  • intransitive verb To present a particular impression.
  • intransitive verb To cause to give forth or produce a sound.
  • intransitive verb To summon, announce, or signal by a sound.
  • intransitive verb Linguistics To articulate; pronounce.
  • intransitive verb To make known; celebrate.
  • intransitive verb To examine (a body organ or part) by causing to emit sound; auscultate.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English sund, swimming, sea.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English gesund.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English sounden, from Old French sonder, from sonde, sounding line, probably of Germanic origin.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English soun, from Old French son, from Latin sonus; see swen- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English sound, sund, isund, ȝesund, from Old English sund, ġesund ("sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous"), from Proto-Germanic *gasundaz, *sundaz (“healthy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sunt-, *swent- (“vigorous, active, healthy”). Cognate with Scots sound, soun ("healthy, sound"), Saterland Frisian suund, gesuund ("healthy"), West Frisian sûn ("healthy"), Dutch gezond ("healthy, sound"), Low German sund, gesund ("healthy"), German gesund ("healthy, sound"), Danish sund ("healthy"), Swedish sund ("sound, healthy"), Irish fétaid ("to be able"). Related also to German geschwind ("fast, quick"), Old English swīþ ("strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent"). See swith.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Old English sund

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English sounden, from Old French sonder, from sonde ("sounding line") of Germanic origin, compare Old English sundgyrd ("a sounding rod"), sundline ("a sounding line"), Old English sund ("water", "sea"). More at Etymology 3 above

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  • Also a noun having to do with hearing.

    November 29, 2007

  • Three or four distinct roots. (1) The senses "noise" and "make noise" are from French (Latin son-) with excrescent -d appearing in English in the 1400s. (2) The adjective "healthy" is Germanic. (3) So is the noun "strait, channel", related to 'swim' (sumd- assimilating to sund-). (4) The sense "plumb to ascertain depth" is from French but is probably ultimately taken from the previous water sense. The idiom 'sound someone out' comes from this, not from the use of voice.

    March 16, 2009

  • I forgot this is one of the etymological curiosities - wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

    October 17, 2010

  • JM reckons that what most politicians say is sound. Just sound!

    July 4, 2011