cacophony

ca·coph·o·ny

(kə-kŏf′ə-nē)

n. pl. ca·coph·o·nies

1. Jarring, discordant sound; dissonance: heard a cacophony of horns during the traffic jam.

2. The use of harsh or discordant sounds in literary composition, as for poetic effect.

[French cacophonie, from Greek kakophōniā, from kakophōnos, cacophonous; see cacophonous.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

cacophony

(kəˈkɒfənɪ)

n, pl -nies

1. harsh discordant sound; dissonance

2. (Phonetics & Phonology) the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ca•coph•o•ny

(kəˈkɒf ə ni)

n., pl. -nies.

1. harsh discordance of sound; dissonance.

2. a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds.

[1650–60; < New Latin < Greek]

cac•o•phon•ic (ˌkæk əˈfɒn ɪk) adj.

cacophony

1. a harshness of sound.
2. discordant noise. — cacophonic, cacophonous, adj.

cacophony

noun discord, racket, din, dissonance, disharmony, stridency The whole place erupted in a cacophony of sound.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

Translations

Kakophonie Katzenmusik Kakofonie

kakofonia

ふきょうわおん不協和音

kakofonie

cacófatocacofonia

какофония

cacophony

[kæˈkɒfənɪ] N → cacofonía f

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

cacophony

[kəˈkɒfəni] n [voices, sound] → cacophonie f

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

cacophony

n → Kakophonie f (geh), → Missklang m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

cacophony

[kəˈkɒfənɪ] n (frm) → cacofonia

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

He objected to Roscoe Sherriff's polluting this fair night with his cacophony.

View in context

If you missed it, it was an unrelenting cacophony that made you swear at the screen then hit the mute button (think Andy Gray in full flow).

Horn of plenty a barmy drone of contention

Among the best of Golden and Kim's choices are two that play off musical ideas: Xaviera Simmons's Landscape: Playground (It Ain't Hard to Tell), 2005, in which looped audio and video from a squealing summertime water-gun battle seem to morph, through repeated listenings, from chaotic cacophony into richly musical rhythm; and the deeply affecting Winter in America, 2005, by Hank Willis Thomas and Kambui Olujimi, which uses skillful writing and inventive cinematography to wring real drama from the cadre of modified GI Joe-style figures the directors use to enact the story of the 2000 murder of Thomas's cousin in a snowy Philadelphia parking lot.

"Frequency": Studio Museum in Harlem

What are the producers who sanction this cacophony of ear-aching noise possibly thinking of?

VOICE OF SCOTLAND : Out of tune

Unfortunately, viewers of BBC Wales will have been totally unaware of the cacophony of noise which accompanied the playing of the Russian national anthem as the sound engineers had filtered out this barbaric sound for viewers.

Letter: Anthem jeers sanitised

While San Franciscans, familiar with the tradition of anarchic spectacle groups such as the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and the Cacophony Society, may be unfazed by Guerrilla Queer Bar's antics, conditions have been different for those trying to form "outposts" in other cities.

Colonial outpost

Their cacophony signals the hawk's soaring approach, which the crows attempt to thwart by attacking in sorties, three at a time, flapping and nipping.

Letters

Their teacher arrives to a cacophony of noise and movement until the music for their exercises starts.

CAPE TOWN'S

So as to curb any latent tendencies to commercial cacophony that might compromise the restored architectural integrity of the viaduct, Berger has imposed a strict specification for the design of new shop fronts within the former railway arches.

Parisian promenade

Cut from the same mold as the Dreseden Dolls and the somewhat wilder Gogol Bordello, Amour Obsure's music is an interactive experience, one listeners can easily immerse themselves in, and with its cacophony of accordion, vocals, accordion, upright bass, trombone, mandolin, tenor banjo, percussion and gorgeous, smoky vocals, this is music very much worth soaking in.

Big and fun

Evolutionary biologist Clinton Francis said birds unaffected by noise succeed because common nest predator the western scrub-jay tends to steer clear of the cacophony.

Some birds prefer the wilder life; NATURE

Much of this video has been shown in multichannel installations like Dedication to Fernand Leger, 1987-95/2003, in which twenty-four hours of family video diaries that Mekas shot over nine years are shown on twelve monitors, two hours on each, the sound mixing into a not unpleasant cacophony. Installation opens the possibility of a different kind of social space for moving-image work, but one that is necessarily less meditative and less compatible with the subtle layering of time past and present that distinguished Mekas's films.

Noun	1.	cacophony - a loud harsh or strident noise blare, blaring, clamor, din noise - sound of any kind (especially unintelligible or dissonant sound); "he enjoyed the street noises"; "they heard indistinct noises of people talking"; "during the firework display that ended the gala the noise reached 98 decibels"
	2.	cacophony - loud confusing disagreeable sounds dissonance - disagreeable sounds