dissonance

English

Etymology

From Latin dissonantia via Middle French.

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Noun

dissonance (countable and uncountable, plural dissonances)

1. A harsh, discordant combination of sounds.
2. (music) Conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding.
3. A state of disagreement or conflict.
4. (countable) An instance of disharmony or disjunction; a clash.

• 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

• dissonant
• cognitive dissonance

Translations

a harsh, discordant combination of sounds

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

  Mandarin: 不和諧 (zh)

• Czech: nesouzvuk m
• Greek: ασυμφωνία (el) f (asymfonía)

• Polish: dysonans (pl) m
• 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
• Greek: ασυμφωνία (el) f (asymfonía), παραφωνία (el) f (parafonía)

• Polish: dysharmonia (pl) 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
• Greek: ασυμφωνία (el) f (asymfonía)

• Japanese: 不一致 (ja) (ふいっち, fuicchi)
• Russian: диссонанс (ru) (dissonans)
• Ukrainian: дисона́нс m (dysonáns)

See also

• assonance
• consonance

Anagrams

• scansioned

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French

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

dissonance f (plural dissonances)

1. dissonance

Derived terms

• dissonance cognitive

Further reading

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