cacophony

[ kuh-kof-uh-nee ]

/ kəˈkɒf ə ni /

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See synonyms for: cacophony / cacophonic on Thesaurus.com

noun, plural ca·coph·o·nies.

harsh discordance of sound; dissonance: a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.

a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: the cacophony produced by city traffic at midday.

Music. frequent use of discords of a harshness and relationship difficult to understand.

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Origin of cacophony

1650–60; <New Latin cacophonia<Greek kakophōnía.See caco-, -phony

OTHER WORDS FROM cacophony

cac·o·phon·ic

[kak-uh-fon-ik], /ˌkæk əˈfɒn ɪk/, adjective

Words nearby cacophony

cacography, cacology, cacomistle, caconym, cacophonous, cacophony, cacqueteuse, cactaceous, cactoblastis, cactus, cactus dahlia

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use cacophony in a sentence

It’s akin to playing neuronal “piano keys” into a melody that makes sense to the brain, rather than simultaneously pounding them into neurological cacophony.
How Do We Remember Places? This Study Used Lasers and VR to Point the Way|Shelly Fan|November 10, 2020|Singularity Hub
On Saturday night, the walls of the Kennedy Center Opera House capably blocked out the celebratory cacophony of horns and hollering that overtook the city.
At Kennedy Center recital, baritone Will Liverman is a voice for this historic moment|Michael Andor Brodeur|November 8, 2020|Washington Post
Overtoning allows us to incorporate plenty of herbs, spices or other closely related ingredients in a dish without it turning into a cacophony of contrasting elements.
There’s a science to food pairing, and you can learn it here|Peter Coucquyt, Bernard Lahousse, and Johan Langenbick|October 22, 2020|Popular-Science
Working at home is essentially like working in the most extreme open plan office—prone to the cacophony and clutter we once complained about when we were actually sitting at a proper desk in the office.
A peek inside home offices around the world|Anne Quito|September 20, 2020|Quartz

Enterprise location marketers definitely want choice but not the confusion and cacophony of too-many companies, which has defined this segment over the past half decade.
Foursquare becomes first company to receive MRC location-data accreditation|Greg Sterling|August 21, 2020|Search Engine Land
Most Cacophony events were one-off affairs, just enough to jam the culture a bit before moving on.
Before the Bros, SantaCon Was as an Anti-Corporate Protest|David Freedlander|December 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
“The idea was to mess with the concept of Christmas,” recalled John Law, an original Cacophony member.
Before the Bros, SantaCon Was as an Anti-Corporate Protest|David Freedlander|December 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Any upcoming release of a new Apple product guarantees a deafening cacophony of idle speculation from tech sites.
Amateur Stuntmen, the iPhone 6, and More Viral Videos|Jack Holmes|August 30, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Badges hanging from their necks boast small national flags, and a cacophony of accents represents more than 20 countries.
A Camp Away From Terror: Where Israeli and Palestinian Kids Find Common Ground|Nina Strochlic|August 4, 2014|DAILY BEAST
For Clinton and the Democrats, the cacophony out of Arizona is music to their ears.
Republicans Better Mind the Modernity Gap To Catch Up to Clinton|Lloyd Green|March 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
His huge hand caught the hypnotic stone and swept it into crashing, ear-splitting cacophony against the cold steel bulkhead.
The Link|Alan Edward Nourse
You think youse The rest was jumbled up or lost in the usual cacophony of the thoroughfare.
Nothing But the Truth|Frederic S. Isham
Human intrusion brought a constant cacophony of cries and chattered complaints from birds and beasts.
The Lone Ranger Rides|Fran Striker
Consequently they have sacrificed their Italian birthright of melody for all kinds of cacophony.
Great Singers on the Art of Singing|James Francis Cooke
The old Flemish joyousness of colour passed into a consumptive cacophony.
The History of Modern Painting, Volume 1 (of 4)|Richard Muther

British Dictionary definitions for cacophony

cacophony

/ (kəˈkɒfənɪ) /

noun plural -nies

harsh discordant sound; dissonance

the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language

Compare euphony

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

cacophony

Origin of cacophony

OTHER WORDS FROM cacophony

Words nearby cacophony

Words related to cacophony

How to use cacophony in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for cacophony