resonance

Noun

resonance (countable and uncountable, plural resonances)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being resonant.
   • The leiter-wagons contained great, square boxes, with handles of thick rope; these were evidently empty by the ease with which the Slovaks handled them, and by their resonance as they were roughly moved.1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   resound

2. (countable) A resonant sound, echo, or reverberation, such as that produced by blowing over the top of a bottle.
   • He passed on, and the lights and cries of the station dropped away, merged in a wider haze and a hollower resonance, as the train gathered itself up with a long shake and rolled out again into the darkness.1912, Edith Wharton, The Reef, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company
3. The sound produced by a hollow body part such as the chest cavity upon auscultation, especially that produced while the patient is speaking.
4. (figuratively) Something that evokes an association, or a strong emotion; something that strikes a chord.
   • emotional resonance
   • But the film is largely redeemed by an unexpected emotional resonance befitting a Steven Spielberg production.2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club, archived from the original on 16 Jul 2012
5. The increase in the amplitude of an oscillation of a system under the influence of a periodic force whose frequency is close to that of the system's natural frequency.
   • One of the most important developments beyond the original concept of magnetic resonance is so-called double resonance in which, as the name suggests, one excites one resonant transition of a system while simultaneously monitoring a different transition.2013, Charles P. Slichter, Principles of Magnetic Resonance, Springer Science & Business, →ISBN, page 217
6. (nuclear physics) A short-lived subatomic particle or state of atomic excitation that results from the collision of atomic particles.
   • When experiments with the first ‘atom-smashers’ took place in the 1950s to 1960s, many short-lived heavier siblings of the proton and neutron, known as ‘resonances’, were discovered.2004, Frank Close, Particle Physics: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 35
7. An increase in the strength or duration of a musical tone produced by sympathetic vibration.
8. The property of a compound that can be visualized as having two structures differing only in the distribution of electrons.

   Synonyms:

   mesomerism

9. An influence of the gravitational forces of one orbiting object on the orbit of another, causing periodic perturbations.
   • The dedicated time Cheops spent observing the star helped astronomers iron out the mixed signals from the TESS data to determine how many planets were crossing in front of the star and the resonance of their orbits.2023 November 29, Ashley Strickland, “Astronomers discover nearby six-planet solar system with ‘pristine configuration’”, in CNN
10. The condition where the inductive and capacitive reactances have equal magnitude.
11. A quality of human relationship with the world.
    • Resonance is a kind of relationship to the world, formed through affect and emotion, intrinsic interest, and perceived self-efficacy, in which subject and world are mutually affected and transformed.2019 [2016], James Wagner, transl., Resonance, John Wiley & Sons, translation of Resonanz by Hartmut Rosa, →ISBN