euphony

English

Etymology

From French euphonie, from Ancient Greek εὐφωνία (euphōnía), from εὐ- (eu-, prefix meaning ‘good, well’) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound; (human) voice; discourse, speech”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say, speak”)) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).[1] The English word is analysable as eu- +‎ -phony.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈjuːfəni/
  • Audio (Southern England)(file)

Noun

euphony (countable and uncountable, plural euphonies)

  1. A pronunciation of letters and syllables which is pleasing to the ear.
    Antonym: cacophony
    • 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, Chapter 8:
      Mandalay. In the name there was a euphony which beckoned to the imagination, yet this was the bitter, withered reality.
  2. Pleasant phonetic quality of certain words.
    When I hear you speak, I hear beautiful euphony.

Derived terms

Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

See also

References
  1. Compare “euphony, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “euphony, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.