DISSONANCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dissonance mean? 

• DISSONANCE (noun)
  The noun DISSONANCE has 3 senses:

1. a conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters

2. the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience

3. disagreeable sounds

  Familiarity information: DISSONANCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DISSONANCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

disagreement; dissension; dissonance

Hypernyms ("dissonance" is a kind of...):

conflict (a state of opposition between persons or ideas or interests)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dissonance"):

disunity (lack of unity (usually resulting from dissension))

divide (a serious disagreement between two groups of people (typically producing tension or hostility))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

dissonance; noise; racket

Context example:

modern music is just noise to me

Hypernyms ("dissonance" is a kind of...):

auditory sensation; sound (the subjective sensation of hearing something)

Derivation:

dissonant (characterized by musical dissonance; harmonically unresolved)

dissonate (cause to sound harsh and unpleasant)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Disagreeable sounds

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("dissonance" is a kind of...):

sound property (an attribute of sound)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dissonance"):

discord; discordance (a harsh mixture of sounds)

disharmony; inharmoniousness (a lack of harmony)

cacophony (loud confusing disagreeable sounds)

Antonym:

harmony (an agreeable sound property)

Derivation:

dissonant (lacking in harmony)

dissonate (cause to sound harsh and unpleasant)