euphony
English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]From French euphonie, from Ancient Greek εὐφωνία (euphōnía), from εὐ- (eu-, prefix meaning ‘good, well’) + φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound; (human) voice; discourse, speech”) (from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to say, speak”)) + -ῐ́ᾱ (-íā, suffix forming feminine abstract nouns).[1] The English word is analysable as eu- + -phony.
Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /ˈjuːfəni/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Noun
[edit]euphony (countable and uncountable, plural euphonies)
- A pronunciation of letters and syllables which is pleasing to the ear.
- Antonym: cacophony
- 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth, Chapter 8:
- Mandalay. In the name there was a euphony which beckoned to the imagination, yet this was the bitter, withered reality.
- Pleasant phonetic quality of certain words.
- When I hear you speak, I hear beautiful euphony.
Derived terms
[edit]Translations
[edit]pronunciation which is pleasing to the ear
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pleasant phonetic quality
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Compare “euphony, n.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “euphony, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *bʰeh₂- (speak)
- English terms derived from French
- English terms derived from Ancient Greek
- English terms prefixed with eu-
- English terms suffixed with -phony
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples