cacophony

(kə-kŏf'ə-nē)
n., pl., -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.]

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cacophony [kă‐ko‐fŏni], harshness or discordancy of sound; the opposite of euphony. Usually the result of awkward alliteration as in tongue‐twisters, it is sometimes used by poets for deliberate effect, as in these lines from Robert Browning's ‘Caliban upon Setebos’:

And squared and stuck there squares of soft white chalk,
And, with a fish‐tooth, scratched a moon on each,
And set up endwise certain spikes of tree,
And crowned the whole with a sloth's skull a‐top.

Adjective: cacophonous or cacaphonic.

See also dissonance.

A discordant or dissonant sound.

Discordant sounds in the jarring juxtaposition of harsh letters or syllables, sometimes inadvertent, but often deliberately used in poetry for effect.

For a list of words related to cacophony, see:

• Devices, Techniques, and Elements - cacophony: harsh, discordant sounds in recited poetry
• Sound, Hearing, and Deafness - cacophony: harsh discordance of sound; dissonance
• Descriptions of Sounds
• Confusion

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See words rhyming with "cacophony."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Cacophony.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - kakofoni

Nederlands (Dutch)
kakofonie, wanklank

Français (French)
n. - cacophonie (sout)

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kakophonie, Mißklang

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - κακοφωνία, παραφωνία, ορυμαγδός, πανδαιμόνιο

Italiano (Italian)
cacofonia

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cacofonia (f), dissonância (f)

Русский (Russian)
какофония

Español (Spanish)
n. - cacofonía

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kakofoni

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
杂音, 不和谐音

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 雜音, 不和諧音

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 불협 화음, 소음

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 耳障りな音, 不協和音

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) اصوات مزعجه, نغمات متنافرة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קקופוניה, תצרום‬

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