sonority
(səˈnɒrɪtɪ)
[a. F. sonorité, or ad. L. sonōritas, f. sonōr-us: see -ity.]
The quality of being sonorous: a. Of sounds.
| 1623 Cockeram i, Sonoritie, shrilnesse, loudnesse. |
| 1864 Reader 16 Jan. 86/1 An amount of sonority..ten times as much as the ten first fiddles of the Brussels Conservatoire. 1874 Hullah Speaking Voice 2 We reduce to a minimum the sonority of our vowels. 1883 Grove's Dict. Music III. 426 This depression of the first string..is not unfavourable to sonority. |
b. Of things or places.
| 1879 Grove's Dict. Music I. 10 The salle [of the theatre] is said to be deficient in sonority. 1883 Harper's Mag. Nov. 886/2 The sonority of this reservoir is expected materially to re-enforce the volume of tone. 1897 Trans. Amer. Pediatric Soc. IX. 19 The sonority of the chest, and the peculiar character of the respiration. |
c. Of speech or diction.
| 1876 Contemp. Rev. XXVIII. 240 Milton's proficiency on the organ is hardly to be forgotten in considering the richness and sonority of his language. 1881 Athenæum No. 2811. 328/2 The great virtue of the regular sonnet..is a certain sonority. 1883 Ld. Lytton Life Lytton II. 100 The fine sonority of the verse in Tamberlain. |