sound

A drum produces sound via a vibrating membrane.

Meanings

Adjective

Adverb

  • Soundly.

Interjection

Noun

  • A sensation perceived by the ear caused by the vibration of air or some other medium.
  • A vibration capable of causing such sensations.
  • A distinctive style and sonority of a particular musician, orchestra etc
  • Noise without meaning; empty noise.
  • earshot, distance within which a certain noise may be heard.
  • A long narrow inlet, or a strait between the mainland and an island; also, a strait connecting two seas, or connecting a sea or lake with the ocean.
  • The air bladder of a fish.
  • A long, thin probe for sounding or dilating body cavities or canals such as the urethra; a sonde.

Verb

  • To produce a sound.
  • To convey an impression by one's sound.
  • To be conveyed in sound; to be spread or published; to convey intelligence by sound.
  • To resound.
  • To arise or to be recognizable as arising in or from a particular area of law, or as likely to result in a particular kind of legal remedy.
  • To cause to produce a sound.
  • To pronounce.
  • Dive downwards, used of a whale.
  • To ascertain, or try to ascertain, the thoughts, motives, and purposes of (a person); to examine; to try; to test; to probe.
  • Test; ascertain the depth of water with a sounding line or other device.
  • To examine with the instrument called a sound or sonde, or by auscultation or percussion.

Related

Similar words

Origin

  • From Middle English sound, sund, isund, ȝesund, from Old English sund, ġesund, from Proto-Germanic *gasundaz, *sundaz, from Proto-Indo-European *sunt-, *swent-.
  • Cognate with Scots sound, soun, Saterland Frisian suund, gesuund, West Frisian sûn ("healthy"), Dutch gezond ("healthy, sound"), Low German sund, gesund, German gesund ("healthy, sound"), Danish sund ("healthy"), Swedish sund ("sound, healthy"). Related also to Dutch gezwind ("fast, quick"), German geschwind ("fast, quick"), Old English swīþ ("strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent"). See swith.
  • Noun: from Middle English sownde, alteration of soun, borrowed from Anglo-Norman sun, soun, Old French son, from accusative of Latin sonus, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *swenh₂- ("to sound, resound").
  • Verb: from Middle English sownden, sounen, borrowed from Anglo-Norman suner, sounder, Old French soner (modern sonner), from Latin sonō.
  • The hypercorrect -d appears in the fifteenth century.
  • Displaced native , from , from .
  • From Middle English sound, sund, from Old English sund ("the power, capacity, or act of swimming; swimming; sea; ocean; water; sound; strait; channel"), from Proto-Germanic *sundą ("swimming; sound"), from Proto-Indo-European *swem- ("swimming; sea"). Cognate with Dutch zond ("sound; strait"), Danish sund ("sound; strait; channel"), Swedish sund ("sound; strait; channel"), Icelandic sund ("sound; strait; channel"). Related to swim.
  • From Middle English sounden, from Old French sonder, from sonde of Germanic origin, compare Old English sundgyrd ("a sounding rod"), sundline, Old English sund ("water, sea"). More at Etymology 3 above.

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