Word.ws English Dictionary

sonorous

UK/ˈsɒn.əɹ.əs//ˈsɑːn.ɚ.əs/

sonorous adjective: capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound.

Adjective

sonorous (comparative more sonorous, superlative most sonorous)

  1. Capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound.
    • The highlight of the hike was the sonorous cave, which produced a ringing echo from the hiker’s shouts.
    • The Oath is redacted ; pronounced aloud by President Bailly, — and indeed in such a sonorous tone, that the cloud of witnesses, even outdoors, hear it, and bellow response to it.1837, Thomas Carlyle, “Mercury de Breze”, in Henry Duff Traill, editor, The French Revolution, a History, the Bastille, volume 2, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, The Third Estate, page 162
    Synonyms:
    booming
  2. Full of sound and rich, as in language or verse.
    • He was selected to give the opening speech thanks to his imposing, sonorous voice.
    • For this reason the Italian opera seldom sinks into a poorness of language, but, amidst all the meanness and familiarity of the thoughts, has something beautiful and sonorous in the expression.1761, Joseph Addison, The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq., Birmingham: John Baskerville for J. and R. Tonson, →OCLC, pages 32–33
  3. Wordy or grandiloquent.
    Synonyms:
    prolix
  4. Produced with a relatively open vocal tract and relatively little obstruction of airflow.
    • Vowels are more sonorous (acoustically powerful) than consonants, and so we perceive them as louder and lasting longer.2001, Michael Dobrovolsky, “Phonetics: The Sounds of Language”, in William O'Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller, editors, Contemporary Linguistics, →ISBN, page 21

sonorous meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

sonorous in Tamil

ஈர்ப்பான பேச்சுள்ள, ஒலியிடுகின்ற, இரைச்சலிடுகின்ற

sonorous in Urdu

بلند صوت

sonorous in Bengali

গম্ভীর, সুমধুর ধ্বনিযুক্ত

sonorous in Malayalam

booming, resonant, rich
ഉച്ചഗംഭീരമായ, ഗംഭീരനാദമുള്ള, ഇമ്പമായി മുഴങ്ങുന്ന, ഘന, അഗാധഗാംഭീര്യമാർന്ന, മധുരനാദമുള്ള
grandiloquent, impressive, imposing
വ്യക്തമായ, മതിപ്പുണ്ടാക്കുന്ന, ഹൃദയഹാരിയായ, ഗാംഭീര്യം തോന്നിക്കുന്ന, അലങ്കാരസമൃദ്ധിയോടു കൂടിയ, വാക്ചാതുര്യമുള്ള
More languagesFewer languages
sonorous in Kannada
ಅನುರಣನವಾಗುವ, ತುಂಬುನಾದದ, ಧ್ವನಿಗುಂಫನವುಳ್ಳ, ನಾದಪೂರ್ಣ
sonorous in Sanskrit
शाब्दिक śābdika, शाब्द śābdá

Synonyms of sonorous

4 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of sonorous

Forms of sonorous

comparativemore sonorous
superlativemost sonorous
alternative form (rare)sonourous

Origin of sonorous

Borrowed from Latin sonōrus, from sonor (“sound”), early 17th century.

Words formed from sonorous

Questions about sonorous

What does sonorous mean?
Sonorous means capable of giving out a deep, resonant sound.
What is sonorous in Tamil?
Sonorous in Tamil is ஈர்ப்பான பேச்சுள்ள, ஒலியிடுகின்ற, இரைச்சலிடுகின்ற. See Sonorous meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sonorous?
Sonorous is an adjective.
How do you pronounce sonorous?
Sonorous is pronounced /ˈsɒn.əɹ.əs/ (UK).

Words near sonorous in the dictionary

  1. sonorizes
  2. sonorizing
  3. sonorophone
  4. sonorophones
  5. sonorosity
  6. sonorous
  7. sonorousity
  8. sonorously
  9. sonorousness
  10. sonorousnesses
  11. sonosalpingography

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sonorous (page history and authors); sonorous (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sonorous (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sonorous (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sonorous (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sonorous (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); शाब्द (Sanskrit) (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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Cite this entry: “sonorous.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sonorous. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.