Borrowed fromLatinsonōrus, fromsonor(“sound”),early 17th century.
sonorous (comparativemoresonorous,superlativemostsonorous)
- Capable of giving out adeep,resonantsound.
The highlight of the hike was thesonorous cave, which produced a ringing echo from the hiker’s shouts.
1837,Thomas Carlyle, “Mercury de Breze”, inHenry Duff Traill, editor,The French Revolution, a History, the Bastille[1], volume 2, New York:Charles Scribner's Sons,The Third Estate, page162:The Oath is redacted ; pronounced aloud by President Bailly, — and indeed in such asonorous tone, that the cloud of witnesses, even outdoors, hear it, and bellow response to it.
- Full of sound andrich, as inlanguage orverse.
He was selected to give the opening speech thanks to his imposing,sonorous voice.
1761, Joseph Addison,The Works of the Late Right Honorable Joseph Addison, Esq., Birmingham: John Baskerville for J. and R. Tonson,→OCLC, pages32–33:For this reason the Italian opera seldom sinks into a poorness of language, but, amidst all the meanness and familiarity of the thoughts, has something beautiful andsonorous in the expression.
1859 July 25, Edward Everett, “Rufus Choate. Tributes to the Memory of the Hon. Rufus Choate”, inThe New York Times, page 2:There is nothing of the artificial Johnsonian balance in his style. It is as often marked by a pregnant brevity as by asonorous amplitude.
1945 May and June, Cecil J. Allen, “British Locomotive Practice and Performance”, inRailway Magazine, page152:When the right-away was given, Driver Gibson would give asonorous blast onCardean's deep-toned hooter, and amid a flurry of swirling steam the train would move majestically out, with nearly half the city of Carlisle—or so it would appear—as onlookers on the platform.
- Wordy orgrandiloquent.
- (linguistics, phonetics) Produced with a relatively openvocal tract and relatively little obstruction of airflow.
2001, Michael Dobrovolsky, “Phonetics: The Sounds of Language”, in William O'Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller, editors,Contemporary Linguistics,→ISBN, page21:Vowels are moresonorous (acoustically powerful) than consonants, and so we perceive them as louder and lasting longer.
capable of giving out a deep resonant sound
full of sound and rich, as in language or verse
