Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

sonority

/səˈnɑɹɪti/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.97 in modern English

Syllables: sonor-i-ty
IPA: /səˈnɑɹɪti/

11

Scrabble Score

8

Letters

3

Syllables

7

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

The property of being sonorous.

Countable; Uncountable

noun

Relative loudness (of a speech sound); degree of being sonorous.

Countable; Uncountable

Example Sentences

"Another quality that bothers me is Brendel's inconsistent sonority. The treble is hard and pingy; the midrange is weighed down with a booming bass."
"It can be seen that vowels have the highest sonority of all phonemes in English, with low vowels being even more sonorous than high vowels."

Etymology

From sonor(ous) + -ity, from French sonorité, from Latin sonōritās.

Origin

Source language: French

Word Breakdown

Root: sonorité, sonōritās
Suffix: sonorous

Usage

Inflected Forms

sonorities (plural)

Synonyms

plangency resonance reverberance ringing sonorousness vibrancy

Questions

How do you pronounce sonority?: The recorded pronunciation is /səˈnɑɹɪti/.
What does sonority mean?: The property of being sonorous.
Where does sonority come from?: It is traced to French.

How to pronounce sonority

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “sonority”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/səˈnɑɹɪti/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “sonority”.
Repeat and practice — Say “sonority” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.