sound

English Online Dictionary. What means sound‎? What does sound mean?

English

Alternative forms

• soune, sownd, sowne (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /saʊnd/
• (Local Dublin) IPA^(key): /sæʊn/
• Rhymes: -aʊnd

Etymology 1

From Middle English sound, sund, isund, ȝesund, from Old English sund, ġesund (“sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous”), from Proto-West Germanic *sund, from Proto-Germanic *gasundaz, *sundaz (“healthy”), from Proto-Indo-European *sunt-, *swent- (“vigorous, active, healthy”).

Cognate with Scots sound, soun (“healthy, sound”), Saterland Frisian suund, gesuund (“healthy”), West Frisian sûn (“healthy”), Dutch gezond (“healthy, sound”), Low German sund, gesund (“healthy”), 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.

Adjective

sound (comparative sounder, superlative soundest)

1. Healthy.
2. Complete, solid, or secure.
3. (mathematics, logic) Having the property of soundness.

   Hypernym: valid
4. (British, Ireland, slang) Good; acceptable; decent.

5. (of sleep) Quiet and deep.

6. Heavy; laid on with force.

7. Founded in law; legal; valid; not defective.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Volapük: saun

Translations

Adverb

sound (comparative more sound, superlative most sound)

1. Soundly.

Interjection

sound

1. (British, Ireland, slang) Yes; used to show agreement or understanding.

Etymology 2

• 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. (Compare dialectal drownd, gownd for the same development.)

Displaced native Middle English swei, from Old English swēġ, from Proto-Germanic *swōgiz.

Noun

sound (countable and uncountable, plural sounds)

1. A sensation perceived by the ear caused by the vibration of air or some other medium.
2. A vibration capable of causing such sensations.
3. (music) A distinctive style and sonority of a particular musician, orchestra etc.
4. Noise without meaning; empty noise.
5. Earshot, distance within which a certain noise may be heard.

6. (phonetics) A segment as a part of spoken language, the smallest unit of spoken language, a speech sound.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:sound

Descendants

• Tok Pisin: saun
• → Basque: sound
• → Cebuano: sawon
• → Finnish: soundi, saundi
• → German: Sound
• → Indonesian: sound
• → Italian: sound
• → Japanese: サウンド (saundo)
• → Korean: 사운드 (saundeu)
• → Malayalam: സൗണ്ട് (sauṇṭŭ)
• → Swedish: sound

Translations

See also

• audible

Verb

sound (third-person singular simple present sounds, present participle sounding, simple past and past participle sounded)

1. (intransitive) To produce a sound.

2. (copulative) To convey an impression by one's sound.
3. (intransitive) To be conveyed in sound; to be spread or published; to convey intelligence by sound.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To resound.
5. (intransitive, law, often with in) 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.
6. (transitive) To cause to produce a sound.
7. (transitive, phonetics, of a vowel or consonant) To pronounce.

Synonyms

• (to make noise): echo, reecho, resonate
• See also Thesaurus:sound

Translations

Derived terms

Etymology 3

From Middle English sound, sund (“body of water; swimming; air bladder of a fish”), from Old English sund (“the power, capacity, or act of swimming; swimming; sea; ocean; water; sound; strait; channel”), Old Norse sund (“channel, inlet, strait”), 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.

Noun

sound (plural sounds)

2. (geography) 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.
3. The air bladder of a fish.

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Welsh: swnt

Translations

Etymology 4

From Middle English sounden, from Old French sonder, from sonde (“sounding line”) of Germanic origin, compare Old English sundgyrd (“a sounding rod”), sundline (“a sounding line”), Old English sund (“water, sea”). More at Etymology 3 above.

Verb

sound (third-person singular simple present sounds, present participle sounding, simple past and past participle sounded)

1. (intransitive) Of a whale, to dive downwards.

2. To ascertain, or to try to ascertain, the thoughts, motives, and purposes of (a person); to examine; to try; to test; to probe.
3. To fathom or test; to ascertain the depth of water with a sounding line or other device.
4. (medicine) To examine with the instrument called a sound or sonde, or by auscultation or percussion.

Derived terms

• sounding board
• sounding line
• sounding rocket
• sounding rod

Translations

Noun

sound (plural sounds)

1. (medicine) A long, thin probe for sounding or dilating body cavities or canals such as the urethra; a sonde.

Translations

References

• “sound”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sound”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• nodus, udons, undos

Indonesian

Etymology

Pseudo-anglicism. An ellipsis of English sound system.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈsaun/ [ˈsa.ʊn]
• Rhymes: -aun

Noun

sound

1. (colloquial) sound system

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English sound.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsawnd/
• Rhymes: -awnd

Noun

sound m (invariable)

1. (music) sound (distinctive style and sonority)

References

Anagrams

• snudo, snudò

Middle English

Noun

sound

1. (Southern) Alternative form of sonde

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from English sound. Attested since 1954.

Noun

sound n

1. (music) a sound (distinctive style)

Declension

References

• sound in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• sound in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• sound in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)