sounding
UK/ˈsaʊndɪŋ/
sounding noun: the action of the verb to sound. Also the present participle and gerund of sound.
Noun (1)
sounding (plural soundings)
- The action of the verb to sound.
- And thus did the trumpets sound one-and-twenty blasts every day; […] three soundings at the three pausings of the music, […]c. 1650, John Lightfoot, The Temple-Service
- In the course of his soundings, Sir Herbert Walker had heard favourable reports of O.V.S. Bulleid, currently Principal Assistant to Gresley on the LNER.1979 August, Graham Burtenshaw, Michael S. Welch, “O.V.S. Bulleid's SR loco-hauled coaches - 1”, in Railway World, page 394
Adjective
sounding (not comparable)
Noun (2)
sounding (countable and uncountable, plural soundings)
- A test made with a probe or sonde.
- Soundings showed wide variations in depths of water, and from the dredgings of the bottom came new types of sediment […]2011, John P. Rafferty, Oceans and Oceanography, page 189
- Morning sounding at Chatham showed dry adiabatic lapse rate all the way to 700 mb this morning […]2020 June 25, National Weather Service Boston 9:52 AM forecast discussion
- A measured depth of water.
- The sailor took a sounding every five minutes
- Any place or part of the ocean, or other water, where a sounding line will reach the bottom.
- We'll rant and we'll roar across the salt seas; Until we strike soundings in the Channel of old Englanda. 1840, Spanish Ladies (naval song, chorus)
- The sand, shells, etc. brought up by the sounding lead when it has touched bottom.
- The act of inserting of a thin metal rod into the urethra of the penis for medical or sexual purposes.(See urethral sounding).
Also used as
sounding is also the present participle and gerund of sound.
sounding meaning in Bengali, Telugu, Nepali and Malay
sounding in Bengali
- সাউন্ডিং
sounding in Telugu
- సౌండింగ్, ధ్వనించే
sounding in Nepali
- ध्वनीकरण
sounding in Malay
- test made with a probe
- pemeruman
More languagesFewer languages
- sounding in Indonesian
- pendugaan
Examples of sounding in a sentence
- I wasn't sure how to phrase my condolences without sounding patronising.
- I'm sick of his sounding off about how he thinks this country should be run!
- They consider that channel to be unsailable until a sounding with sonar has been performed.
Forms of sounding
| plural | soundings |
|---|
Origin of sounding
From sound (“produce a sound”) + -ing.
From sound (“measure depths”) + -ing.
Words formed from sounding
Phrases with sounding
Words that rhyme with sounding
Questions about sounding
- What does sounding mean?
- Sounding means the action of the verb to sound.
- What is sounding in Bengali?
- Sounding in Bengali is সাউন্ডিং. See Sounding meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is sounding?
- Sounding can be a noun or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce sounding?
- Sounding is pronounced /ˈsaʊndɪŋ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of sounding?
- The plural of sounding is soundings.
Words near sounding in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sounding (page history and authors); sounding (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sounding (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); sounding (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-sounding.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sounding.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sounding. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.