See Also: Sound(medicine)
sound(3)(dictionary)
sound(4)(dictionary)
sound(5)(dictionary)
sound(6)(dictionary)
sound(7)(dictionary)
sound(9)(dictionary)
sound(encyclopedia)
Sound, the(encyclopedia)
second sound(medicine)

sound(4) (iou)



sound noun2. ME.
[Anglo-Norman sun, soun, Old & mod. French son from Latin sonus. The intrusive d appears in 15.]
The sensation produced in the ear or other organ of hearing by the vibration of the surrounding air or other medium; that which is or may be heard; the phenomenon of vibration by which this is produced. Also, pressure waves outside the range of audible frequencies, as infrasound, ultrasound. ME.
M. Tippett My sharpest sense is that of sound.
b. Music, melody. ME-M16.
c. The music, speech, etc., accompanying a film, television programme, or other visual presentation. E20.
A. Lee A big television with..the sound off.
d. Physics. Any of various kinds of wave motion predicted or observed to occur in superfluid helium and propagated in a way analogous to ordinary sound. M20.
zero sound, second sound, third sound, etc.
a. A particular cause of auditory effect; the sensation resulting from this. Also, a similar phenomenon that is beyond the range of hearing. ME.
M. Mitchell The sounds of hooves, the jingling of harness chains. D. Eden She..awoke suddenly to the sound of Uncle..shouting. C. Harkness No sound except for the chirping of birds. I. Murdoch Camilla's..shoes with medium-high heels made a sharp clacking sound.
b. The distance or range over which the sound of something is heard. Chiefly in within the sound of, in the sound of. Now rare. E17.
a. The auditory effect produced by the operation of the human voice; speech, utterance; any of a series of articulate utterances. LME.
B. Bryson In a relatively short period the long vowel sounds of English..changed their values.
b. Rich, euphonious, or harmonious auditory effect produced by certain articulations. L16.
c. Mere audible effect of words, without significance or real importance. E17.
Shakespeare Macbeth A tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.
d. Meaning, sense, significance. M17-E18.
e. The mental impression produced by a statement, report, etc. Freq. in like the sound of. M19.
Knowledge, gossip, news (of a person or thing); a rumour, a report. obsolete exc. Scot. & dial. LME.
a. Cinematography & Broadcasting. The department in charge of recording sound; (equipment used by) an engineer in this department. M20.
b. (Broadcasting by) radio as distinct from television. Freq. attrib. M20.
a. A tune, a record; in pl., popular music. slang (orig. US). M20.
b. A specified characteristic style of (usu. popular) music. M20.
Sunday Express That great musical sound of the Beatles which..shook the world.
Phrases: first sound ordinary sound as distinct from other waves in superfluid helium. sound and light designating a son et lumiere production or show. WIRED for sound.
Attrib. & comb.: In the sense 'pertaining to the transmission, broadcasting, or reproduction of sound', as sound boom, sound engineer, sound studio, sound system, sound recording, etc. Special combs., as sound archive a library in which sound recordings are preserved; sound barrier the increased drag, reduced controllability, etc., which occurs when an aircraft approaches the speed of sound, formerly regarded as an obstacle to supersonic flight; break the sound barrier, travel faster than, or accelerate past, the speed of sound; sound bite (orig. US) a short extract from a recorded interview, speech, etc., chosen for its succinctness or appropriateness and edited into a news broadcast; sound-boarding Carpentry short boards placed between floor joists to hold pugging for sound insulation; sound-bow the thickest part of a bell, against which the hammer strikes; soundbox Music (a) the hollow part of a stringed instrument which increases its resonation; (b) in a gramophone, the box which carries the reproducing or recording stylus; sound camera Cinematography: that records sound as well as optical images on the film; sound card Computing a printed circuit board which can be slotted into a computer to allow the use of audio components for multimedia applications; sound cell a crystal microphone in which sound acts directly on the crystal, without the use of a diaphragm; sound channel Oceanography a layer of water in which sound is propagated over long distances with minimum energy loss, usu. because of refraction back into this layer by temperature or pressure gradients; sound check a test of sound equipment before a musical performance or recording to ensure that the sound level is correct; sound-conditioned adjective insulated against sound; having improved acoustic qualities; sound conditioner a device designed to mask or block out undesirable sounds by generating white noise or some other continuous, unobtrusive sound; sound conditioning insulation against sound; sound effect (a) a sound typical of an event or evocative of an atmosphere, produced artificially in a play, film, etc. (usu. in pl.); (b) the effect produced by the sound of a word; sound-film Cinematography a cinematic film with accompanying recorded sound; sound gate Cinematography the part of a sound head where the soundtrack is scanned as the film passes through it; sound generator an electronic device that generates sound, spec. a chip for doing this in a computer, musical keyboard, etc.; sound head Cinematography the part of a film projector that produces an electrical signal from the soundtrack; sound-hole (a) Music an opening in the belly of most stringed instruments; (b) Architecture an opening in a belfry filled with tracery but not glazed, found esp. in Norfolk, Somerset, and Gloucestershire; sound-insulated adjective = sound-conditioned above; sound insulation = sound-conditioning above; sound-law Philology [translating German Lautgesetz] a rule stating the regular occurrence of a phonetic change in the history of a language or language family; sound meter an instrument for measuring the intensity of sound; sound mixer a mixer for combining sound signals (see MIXER noun 4a); sound moderator a silencer on a firearm; sound-on-film Cinematography the incorporation of a soundtrack with a film; sound picture = sound-film above; sound-post Music a small peg of wood fixed as a support beneath the bridge of a violin or similar stringed instrument, connecting the belly and the back; sound pressure the difference between the instantaneous pressure at a point in the presence of a sound wave and the static pressure of the medium; sound print = SONOGRAM; soundproof adjective & verb (a) adjective impervious to sound, preventing noise from being heard; (b) verb trans. make soundproof (chiefly as soundproofed ppl adjective); sound-ranger Military a person trained in sound-ranging; sound-ranging Military calculation of the source of a sound based on the time lapse between the reception of the sound at different positions; soundscape (a) a musical composition consisting of a texture of sounds; (b) the sounds which form an auditory environment; Soundscriber (US proprietary name for) a machine for the recording and subsequent reproduction of speech; sound shift: see SHIFT noun 11c; sound spectrogram = SONOGRAM; sound spectrograph = SONOGRAPH 1; sound stage: having acoustic properties suitable for the recording of sound (spec. one used for filming); sound stripe Cinematography a narrow band of magnetic material on the edge of a film, which contains the soundtrack; sound-substitution Linguistics the replacement of one sound by another; sound-symbolic adjective (Linguistics) pertaining to or manifesting sound-symbolism; sound-symbolism Linguistics the (partial) natural representation of the sense of a word by its sound; sound synthesis the generation of sound by electronic means, as in a computer, synthesizer, etc.; sound system = HI-FI noun; soundtrack noun & verb (a) noun the sound element of a film or video, recorded optically or magnetically; such a recording made available separately; any constituent single track in a multi-track recording; (b) verb trans. provide with a soundtrack, serve as a soundtrack for; sound truck (a) N. Amer. a van equipped with a loudspeaker; (b) Cinematography a mobile sound recording unit; sound wave a longitudinal pressure wave in an elastic medium, esp. one that propagates audible sound.
soundful adjective (rare) full of sound E17.