CONSONANT • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Consonant

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/kˈɑnsənənt/ Listen

noun

Consonant n. An articulate sound which in utterance is usually combined and sounded with an open sound called a vowel; a member of the spoken alphabet other than a vowel; also, a letter or character representing such a sound. Note: Consonants are divided into various classes, as mutes, spirants, sibilants, nasals, semivowels, etc. All of them are sounds uttered through a closer position of the organs than that of a vowel proper, although the most open of them, as the semivowels and nasals, are capable of being used as if vowels, and forming syllables with other closer consonants, as in the English feeble, taken. All the consonants excepting the mutes may be indefinitely, prolonged in utterance without the help of a vowel, and even the mutes may be produced with an aspirate instead of a vocal explosion. Vowels and consonants may be regarded as the two poles in the scale of sounds produced by gradual approximation of the organ, of speech from the most open to the closest positions, the vowel being more open, the consonant closer; but there is a territory between them where the sounds produced partake of the qualities of both. Note: "A consonant is the result of audible friction, squeezing, or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth (or occasionally of the throath.) The main distinction between vowels and consonants is, that while in the former the mouth configuration merely modifies the vocalized breath, which is therefore an essential element of the vowels, in consonants the narrowing or stopping of the oral passage is the foundation of the sound, and the state of the glottis is something secondary."

adjective

Consonant adj.

Having agreement; congruous; consistent; according; usually followed by with or to. "Each one pretends that his opinion... is consonant to the words there used." "That where much is given there shall be much required is a thing consonant with natural equity."

Having like sounds. "Consonant words and syllables."

(Mus.) Harmonizing together; accordant; as, consonant tones, consonant chords.

Of or pertaining to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants. "No Russian whose dissonant consonant name Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame."

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Etymology of 'Consonant'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Consonant" Quotes from Famous Books

... to hear a woman say it," answered Mrs Dorothy, with as much warmth as was consonant with her nature. "I hoped ...

— The Maidens' Lodge - None of Self and All of Thee, (In the Reign of Queen Anne) • Emily Sarah Holt

... of the Olympic Games is lost in darkness. The legends which attribute their first foundation to the times of demigods and heroes, are so far consonant with truth, that exhibitions of physical strength made the favourite diversion of that wild and barbarous age which is consecrated to the heroic. It is easy to perceive that the origin of athletic games preceded the date of civilization; that, associated with occasions ...

— Athens: Its Rise and Fall, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... art, in the highest sense, through consonant vibrations in us, open the doors and windows of the soul, put us in touch and tune with the Infinite, and then, the real harmony begins. We live for the time in another world and return with a sigh ...

— The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul - The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies - in Psychology • Jirah D. Buck

... rude, and associated with human life, to become deeply affecting to the imagination. But it is not necessary that the artificial objects of a landscape should be of a grand historical description, to produce these agreeable effects: humble objects, indeed, are the most consonant with Nature's sublime aspects, because they manifest no seeming endeavor to rival them. In the deep solitary woods, the sight of a woodman's hut in a clearing, of a farmer's cottage, or of a mere sheepfold, immediately ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 8, No. 46, August, 1861 • Various

... that God, the party covenanted with, is holy and unchangeably so, and calls his people to imitate him in this attribute especially; and also in regard that the covenant itself is for its nature holy, all the articles being morally good and consonant to the royal law, the scriptures of truth; and for the extent of its duration, of perpetual force and obligation. This duty of holiness towards God, engaged to in the covenant, comprehends in it a zealous endeavor to maintain the purity of the doctrine, worship, discipline and government of his ...

— The Auchensaugh Renovation of the National Covenant and • The Reformed Presbytery

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