euphonious
/juˈfoʊ.ni.əs/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: 1.67 in modern English
15
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
4
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of sounds, especially speech: demonstrating or possessing euphony; agreeable to the ear; pleasant-sounding.
Example Sentences
- "Before I ſet forward on my travels, I choſe to change my name from Collier to Coglioni or Collioni, as more euphonious; […]"
- "We think it difficult to copy more successfully a model so curiously polished as the Botanic Garden; to assemble ideas more luxuriously elegant; to annex epithets more unexpectedly apposite: or to harmonize couplets more imitative and euphonious."
- "I know our theatrical managers, major and minor, are very particular in selecting euphonious titles for their melodramas, especially if on a domestic subject, such as "Bennet, the Butcher," "Davidge, the Dustman," "Harley, the Harper," "Vining, the Vintner." Why those very titles alone, by their tickling effect on the ear, would fill the pit and galleries of the Surrey, Victoria, or Adelphi theatres, for twelve consecutive months, if the pieces bearing those euphonious names were immediately produced."
- "After casting about for some time for a name which should be worthy of her, he decided in favour of Sophronia Sphynx, as being euphonious and genteel, and furthermore indicative of mystery."
- "Many persons, hoping to appear polite, deprive their words of the letter "r," which gives a forcible and euphonious ending to many English words and syllables. This is a peculiarity of the cockney dialect, spoken by the lowest classes in the city of London, but on being transported across the Atlantic it is adopted by many who would be thought refined."
- "I have, on a former occasion, suggested the expediency of searching out the original Indian names of places, and wherever they are striking and euphonious, and those by which they have been superseded are glaringly objectionable, to restore them. They would have the merit of originality, and of belonging to the country; and they would remain as reliques of the native lords of the soil, when every other vestige had disappeared."
Etymology
From euphonical + -ous (suffix forming adjectives denoting possession or presence of a quality, commonly in abundance). Euphonical is derived from euphonic + -al (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’); with euphonic from euphony + -ic (suffix forming adjectives with the sense ‘of or pertaining to’), and euphony borrowed 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 (-ĭ́ā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).
Origin
- Source language: French
Word Breakdown
- Root: *bʰeh₂-, euphonie, εὐφωνία
- Suffix: euphonical, euphonic, euphony
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /juˈfoʊ.ni.əs/
- British English: /juːˈfəʊ.nɪ.əs/
Inflected Forms
more euphonious (comparative)
most euphonious (superlative)