Resonant

How to spell resonant

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce resonant

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does resonant mean?

1. adjectiveProducing or characterised by a deep, full, prolonged sound, or having a powerful lingering effect on the mind.

Resonant in a sentence

• The choir filled the cathedral with a deep, resonant tone.

• Her closing speech was so resonant that the audience kept quoting it for weeks.

Where does resonant come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin verb resonare, which meant 'to resound' or 'to echo back', built from the prefix re-, meaning 'back' or 'again', and the verb sonare, meaning 'to sound'. The same sonare gives us a whole family of English words about noise, including 'sound' itself, 'sonorous', 'sonic', and 'unison'. The present participle resonans, with its stem resonant-, described something that gives back or prolongs sound, and English took it up in the early 1500s, first in technical and musical contexts. Over time the meaning broadened from literal physical echoing to a figurative sense, so a story or idea can now be described as resonant when it strikes a chord and lingers in the mind. The spelling trap lies in the unstressed middle and ending: both the second and final vowels are reduced schwas, which is why writers sometimes hesitate over the vowels in 'son' and the '-ant' ending rather than '-ent'.

How the word is built

• re- (back, again)
• son (sound, from sonare 'to sound')
• -ant (adjective suffix, 'doing')