consonant

From Middle English consonant or consonaunt, from Old French consonant, from Latin cōnsonāns (“sounding with”), from the prefix con- (“with”) + the present participle sonāns (“sounding”), from sonāre (“to sound”). The Latin is a calque of Ancient Greek σύμφωνον (súmphōnon).

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kŏn'sənənt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.sə.nənt/
• (US) enPR: kän's(ə)nənt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.sə.nənt/, /ˈkɑns.nənt/

  • Audio (Midland US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnsənənt, -ɑnsənənt, -ɑnsnənt

consonant (plural consonants)

2. (phonetics) A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the dominant sound of a syllable, the dominant sound generally being a vowel.

   Hyponym: obstruent

4. A letter representing the sound of a consonant.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   • 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 4, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:

     “Tell me, has right anything to do with the law?” I asked. “You have used the wrong initial consonant,” he smiled in answer. “Might?” I queried; and he nodded his head.

• → Swahili: konsonanti

consonant (comparative more consonant, superlative most consonant)

1. Consistent, harmonious, compatible, or in agreement.
   • 1710, William Beveridge, The true nature of the Christian church, the office of its ministers, and the means of grace administred by them explain'd. In twelve sermons:

     Each one pretends that his opinion […] is consonant to the words there used.

   • 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, “The Rev. Mr. Carter, Parson-Publican”, in Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events:

     Cheerfulness, even gaiety, is consonant with every species of virtue and practice of religion, and I think it inconsistent only with impiety and vice.

   • 1946, United States Supreme Court, Pennekamp v. Florida 328 U.S. 331,334

     This essential right of the courts to be free of intimidation and coercion was held to be consonant with a recognition that freedom of the press must be allowed in the broadest scope compatible with the supremacy of order.

2. Having the same sound.
   • 1645-1650, James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elianae

     consonant words and syllables

4. (music) Harmonizing together; accordant.

   consonant tones; consonant chords

5. Of or relating to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.
   • 1813, Thomas Moore, Intercepted Letters, or the Two-Penny Post-Bag:

     No Russian whose dissonant consonant name / Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:consonant.

• disconsonant
• dissonant
• discordant

• consonance
• consonantal

• vowel
• semivowel
• consonant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Latin cōnsonantem.

• IPA^(key): /konsoˈnan/
• Syllabification: con‧so‧nant
• Rhymes: -an

consonant (plural consonants)

1. consonant

consonant f

1. consonant

• consonantico

Borrowed from Latin cōnsonantem. First attested in the 14th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Central) [kun.suˈnan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [kon.soˈnant]
• Rhymes: -ant

consonant m or f (masculine and feminine plural consonants)

1. consonant

consonant f (plural consonants)

1. consonant

• consonàntic

• “consonant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “consonant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “consonant” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• Audio:

  (file)

consonant (feminine consonante, masculine plural consonants, feminine plural consonantes)

1. consonant

• “consonant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkõː.sɔ.nant]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔn.so.nan̪t̪]

cōnsonant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of cōnsonō

Borrowed from Latin consonans or French consonant.

• IPA^(key): /kon.soˈnant/

consonant m or n (feminine singular consonantă, masculine plural consonanți, feminine and neuter plural consonante)

1. consonant

• “consonant”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2025