sonorous means capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound. It carries an Arena rating of 1852, earned across 6 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, sonorous ranks #644 of 17,126 for Most Elegant Words, #2,522 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #3,433 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #3,634 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words.
sonorous is pronounced /ˈsɒn.əɹ.əs/.
Why “sonorous” is a great word
Capable of giving out a deep, resonant, and impressive sound, or, by extension, describing language that is full, rich, and grandiloquent. From the Latin sonōrus ("noisy, sounding"), from sonor ("sound"), first attested in English in the early 17th century. Unlike "tinny" (which evokes the brittle ping of a bent fork) or "orotund" (which carries the polished bombast of a politician’s baritone), "sonorous" dwells in the weight and linger of sound. It is the deep chime of a cathedral bell at dusk, the velvet rumble of a cello’s lowest note, and the measured roll of a well-spoken line of Milton; it is not merely heard but felt in the bones, a reminder that some sounds do not fade—they settle, like dust, and color the silence that follows.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin sonōrus, from sonor (“sound”), early 17th century.
adj
- Capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound.e.g.“The highlight of the hike was the sonorous cave, which produced a ringing echo from the hiker’s shouts.”
- Full of sound and rich, as in language or verse.e.g.“He was selected to give the opening speech thanks to his imposing, sonorous voice.”
- Wordy or grandiloquent.
- Produced with a relatively open vocal tract and relatively little obstruction of airflow.e.g.“Vowels are more sonorous (acoustically powerful) than consonants, and so we perceive them as louder and lasting longer.” — 2001, Michael Dobrovolsky, “Phonetics: The Sounds of Language”, in William O'Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller, editors, Contemporary Linguistics, →ISBN, page 21:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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