euphony
/ˈjuːf(ə)ni
/noun (plural euphonies) [mass noun]
1The quality of being pleasing to the ear: the poet put euphony before mere factuality...
- Greenfield's self-making depends neither on euphonies nor on arguments, but on a counterpoint of sentences, a music of grammar (as in, for example, Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns).
- I would listen to the euphonies of life and the sobriety of earth beleaguering me.
- Let us leave the sweet euphony of Bangla to our poets, and the salvation-enhancement of Sanskrit to our priests.
1.1The tendency to make phonetic change for ease of pronunciation.Meanwhile, in the English-speaking world Ukraina was no longer the Ukraine, but Ukraine, a change recommended neither by history, etymology, or euphony.
Derivatives
euphonic
/ adjective ...- It makes me worry about the translations of Anglo-Saxon poems which he includes, for as I am ignorant of that language I depend upon him to be accurate if not euphonic.
- Nor is euphonic language the ultimate criterion for a Constitution.
- Although opener ‘Pressure Drop’ begins with a hint of sparky, Sea and Cake-style discordance, it blooms into a gloriously euphonic chorus of ringing guitars and viola swoops spread lavishly with Archer's bedhead vocals.
euphonize
/ (also euphonise) verb ...- Anything played inside the Silo is euphonized, made beautiful, by the acoustics of the structure.
Origin
Late Middle English: from French euphonie, via late Latin from Greek euphōnia, from euphōnos 'well sounding' (based on phōnē 'sound').
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