CONSONANT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.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

... English word has become universally adopted by the Ticinesi themselves. They say 'Waitee' just as we should say 'Wait' to stop some one from going away. It is abhorrent to them to end a word with a consonant so they have added 'ee,' but there can be no doubt about the origin of the word." The Avvocato Negri of Casale-Monferrato says that they have a word in their dialetto which, if ever written, would appear as "vuaitee," ...

— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler • Samuel Butler

... the absence of sexual passion from the novels of the masculine-minded Fenimore Cooper. One may say, indeed, that Cooper's novels, like Scott's, lack intensity of spiritual vision; that their tone is consonant with the views of a sound Church of England parson in the eighteenth century; and that the absence of physical passion, like the absence of purely spiritual insight, betrays a certain defect in Cooper's ...

— The American Mind - The E. T. Earl Lectures • Bliss Perry

... (that is to say, no mutable syllable incorporated into the middle of the root-word).[7] (2) The root excepting its terminal vowel is practically unchanging, though its first or penultimate vowel or consonant may be modified in pronunciation by the preceding prefix, or the last vowel in the same way by the ...

— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various

... interstate commerce commodities which have been manufactured, mined or produced by them.[220] An order approving a lease of one railroad by another, upon condition that displaced employees of the lessor should receive partial compensation for the loss suffered by reason of the lease[221] is consonant with due process of law. A law prohibiting the issuance of free passes was held constitutional even as applied to abolish rights created by a prior agreement whereby the carrier bound itself to issue such passes annually for life, in settlement of a ...

— The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation • Edward Corwin

... ferocious, reader may fill up the blank as he pleases—there are several dissyllabic names at 'his' service (being already in the Regent's): it would not be fair to back any peculiar initial against the alphabet, as every month will add to the list now entered for the sweep-stakes;—a distinguished consonant is said to be the favourite, much against the wishes of the ...

— Byron's Poetical Works, Vol. 1 • Byron

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