Word.ws English Dictionary

altisonant

altisonant adjective: high-sounding; lofty or pompous.

Adjective

altisonant (comparative more altisonant, superlative most altisonant)

  1. (archaic) High-sounding; lofty or pompous.
    • altisonant language
    • He ſpent foure dayes deuiſing him a name: for (as he reaſoned to himſelfe) it was not fit that ſo famous a Knights horſe, and chiefly being ſo good a beaſt, ſhould want a knowne name; and therefore he endeuoured to giue him ſuch a one, as ſhould both declare what ſometime he had been, before he...1612, [Miguel de Cervantes], translated by Thomas Shelton, The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. […], London: […] William Stansby, for Ed[ward] Blount and W....

Forms of altisonant

comparativemore altisonant
superlativemost altisonant

Origin of altisonant

From Latin altus (“high”) + sonans, present participle of sonare (“to sound”).

Questions about altisonant

What does altisonant mean?
Altisonant means high-sounding; lofty or pompous.
What part of speech is altisonant?
Altisonant is an adjective.

Words near altisonant in the dictionary

  1. altiports
  2. altiscope
  3. altiscopes
  4. Altishahr
  5. altisite
  6. altisonant
  7. altisonous
  8. altissimo
  9. altissimos
  10. altithermal
  11. altitonant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: altisonant (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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