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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Give the name and the sound of each of the letters in the three following words: _letters, name, sound_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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Give the name and the sound of each of the letters in the three following words: _letters, name, sound_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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Give the name and the sound of each of the letters in the three following words: _letters, name, sound_.
Graded Lessons in English an Elementary English Grammar Consisting of One Hundred Practical Lessons, Carefully Graded and Adapted to the Class-Room Brainerd Kellogg
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In. by sound, like the word "Numbers" which Macready proposed, and which is really _not a genuine In. by sound_, is of little service to a poor memory.
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All motion pictures might be characterized as _space measured without sound, plus time measured without sound_.
The Art of the Moving Picture Vachel Lindsay 1905
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Intimate-and-friendly Photoplay, especially when it is developed from the standpoint of the last part of chapter nine, _space measured without sound plus time measured without sound_.
The Art of the Moving Picture Vachel Lindsay 1905
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_ I say -- "silver sound" because musicians _sound for silver_.
Shakespeare and Music With Illustrations from the Music of the 16th and 17th centuries 1900
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In the second stanza, "I sound not at the news of wreck," _sound_ is an old form of _swoon_.
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Evidently part of her lungs must be _very_ sound still; and they say _no one's_ lungs are _quite sound_.
The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843) A Selection from Her Majesty's Correspondence Between the Years 1837 and 1861 Queen of Great Britain Victoria 1860
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Pilgrims of all sorts resort thither from all the surrounding countries, even from Persia and China; and having purified themselves by washing in the pool below, they go to the top of the mountain, near which hangs a bell, which they strike, and consider its sound as a symbol of their having been purified; _as if any other bell, on being struck, would not sound_.
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 07 Robert Kerr 1784
vanishedone commented on the word sound
Also a noun having to do with hearing.
November 29, 2007
qroqqa commented on the word sound
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
sarra commented on the word sound
I forgot this is one of the etymological curiosities - wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
October 17, 2010
jmjarmstrong commented on the word sound
JM reckons that what most politicians say is sound. Just sound!
July 4, 2011