Resonance

How to spell resonance

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce resonance

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resonance mean?

1. nounThe quality of evoking a deep, lasting significance or emotional response in someone.
2. nounThe reinforcement or prolonging of sound or vibration when a system is driven at its natural frequency.

Resonance in a sentence

• The speech had real resonance for everyone who had lost a job that year.

• The engineers measured the bridge for resonance to avoid dangerous vibration.

• The old photographs carry a personal resonance that strangers rarely notice.

• The hollow body of the guitar gives the strings their warm resonance.

Where does resonance come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb resonare, which meant 'to resound' or 'to echo back', formed from the prefix re- ('back' or 'again') and sonare ('to sound'). The same sonare root sits behind many familiar relatives such as 'sonic', 'sonorous', and 'consonant'. The abstract noun resonantia described the quality of a sound that lingers and reverberates. English took the word in through Old French in the late 1400s, at first strictly about sound and echoes. Over the centuries it broadened: scientists adopted it for sympathetic vibration in physics and engineering, while everyday usage stretched it to mean a deep emotional or cultural significance that 'echoes' with people. The single s spelled with a z sound is the small trap, since the ear hears a z but the spelling keeps the original son root.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• son (from sonare: to sound)
• -ance (noun of state)