dissonance

English

Etymology

From Latin dissonantia via Middle French; by surface analysis, dis- +‎ son- +‎ -ance.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪsənəns/, /ˈdɪsənɪns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

dissonance (countable and uncountable, plural dissonances)

1. (countable, uncountable) A harsh, discordant combination of sounds.

   Synonym: cacophony

   Antonyms: consonance; concordance, concord

2. (music) Conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding.
3. (uncountable) A state of disagreement or conflict.

   Synonyms: discordance, discord, disharmony, disjunction, dispute; see also Thesaurus:dispute

   • 1977, Lawrence S. Wrightsman with Kay Deaux, Social Psychology, page 366:

     Cognitive dissonance exists when a person possesses two cognitions, one of which is contradictory to the other

4. (countable) An instance of that state.

   Synonyms: clash, dispute; see also Thesaurus:dispute

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 106:

     In this polyphony of images in the unconscious which is beyond and outside historical time, there are complex harmonies but no dissonances: the images do not clash, but that, of course, is an aesthetic judgment and not a scientific one.

Derived terms

• cognitive dissonance
• critical dissonance
• dissonancy
• dissonant
• lyrical dissonance

Related terms

• assonance
• sonic
• sonorous
• sound

Translations

a harsh, discordant combination of sounds

• Bulgarian: неблагозвучие (bg) n (neblagozvučie), дисонанс (bg) m (disonans)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 不和諧 / 不和谐

• Czech: nesouzvuk m
• Finnish: sekasointu, kakofonia (fi)
• Greek: ασυμφωνία (el) f (asymfonía)
• Hebrew: צְרִימָה f (tsrimá)
• Polish: dysonans (pl) m
• Romanian: cacofonie (ro) f
• Russian: диссонанс (ru) (dissonans)
• Tagalog: dilingaw
• Ukrainian: дисона́нс m (dysonáns)
• Welsh: anghytgord m, anghyseinedd m

conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding

• Bulgarian: дисхармония (bg) f (disharmonija)
• Catalan: dissonància f
• Czech: disonance f
• Finnish: riitasointu (fi), dissonanssi (fi)
• French: dissonance (fr) f
• Greek: ασυμφωνία (el) f (asymfonía), παραφωνία (el) f (parafonía)
• Hebrew: צְרִימָה f (tsrimá)
• Hungarian: disszonancia (hu)
• Polish: dysharmonia (pl) f
• Romanian: disonanță (ro) f
• Tagalog: dilingaw
• Ukrainian: дисона́нс m (dysonáns), дисгармо́нія f (dysharmónija)

a state of disagreement or conflict

• Bulgarian: несъгласие (bg) n (nesǎglasie)
• Catalan: dissonància f
• Czech: neshoda f, nesoulad m
• Finnish: riita (fi), epäsopu (fi)
• Greek: ασυμφωνία (el) f (asymfonía)
• Japanese: 不一致 (ja) (ふいっち, fuicchi)
• Russian: диссонанс (ru) (dissonans)
• Ukrainian: дисона́нс m (dysonáns)
• Urdu: نا آہنگی f (nā āhaṉgī)

Anagrams

• scansioned

French

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin dissonantia.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /di.sɔ.nɑ̃s/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

dissonance f (plural dissonances)

1. (music) dissonance (conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding)

   Antonyms: consonance, harmonie

2. dissonance

   Antonyms: assonance, harmonie

Derived terms

• dissonance cognitive

Descendants

• → German: Dissonanz
• → Polish: dysonans

Further reading

• “dissonance”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.