Word of the Day

Friday, July 21, 2000

cacophony

\kuh-KAH-fuh-nee\ , noun;

Harsh or discordant sound; dissonance.

The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition.

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Quotes:

New York was then a cacophony of sounds -- a dozen accents ricocheting off surrounding buildings as immigrant mothers called their children home for supper, noon whistles blowing, vendors hawking their wares on the streets, children shouting, horses whinnying, and people yelling.

-- Herbert G. Goldman, Banjo Eyes

The mammoth central station towered over the platforms, and with the cacophony from whooshing steam, shrill whistles, shouts and the heaving of hand and horse carts, not only was it the biggest, noisiest, most confusing experience any of them had ever encountered, but the city was almost unimaginable.

-- Christopher Ogden, Legacy: A Biography of Moses and Walter Annenberg

Origin:

Cacophony comes from Greek kakophonia, from kakophonos, from kakos, "bad" + phone, "sound." The adjective form is cacophonous. The opposite of cacophony is euphony.