Sonic

How to spell sonic

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce sonic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does sonic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to sound or sound waves, or to the speed of sound.

Sonic in a sentence

• The fighter jet produced a loud sonic boom as it broke the sound barrier.

• The dentist uses a sonic device to clean plaque from teeth.

Where does sonic come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin sonus, meaning simply 'sound' or 'noise', the same root that lies behind 'sound' itself (by way of Old French) and behind 'sonata', 'resonate' and 'consonant'. The adjective 'sonic' was coined comparatively recently, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, built on that classical root with the ordinary English suffix '-ic' to mean 'relating to sound or sound waves'. It gained wide currency during the era of fast flight, when engineers needed a word for speeds measured against the speed of sound, giving us terms like 'sonic boom' and 'supersonic'. The Latin sonus derives from the verb sonare, 'to make a sound' or 'to resound'. Because the spelling keeps a single 'n' and ends in the predictable '-ic', it is a fairly transparent word; the only thing to remember is that it is 'son', not 'sun'.

How the word is built

• son- (from Latin sonus: sound)
• -ic (adjective suffix)