Unison

How to spell unison

6 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce unison

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unison mean?

1. nounA state of acting, speaking, or sounding at the same time or in complete agreement.

Unison in a sentence

• The whole crowd chanted the slogan in unison.

• The board voted in unison to approve the new budget.

Where does unison come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Late Latin unisonus, meaning 'sounding as one', a compound built from unus 'one' and sonus 'sound'. In its earliest musical use it described two voices or instruments sounding the very same pitch, a single shared note rather than a harmony. English picked it up through Old French during the late 1500s, at first strictly as a term of music theory. Over time the meaning broadened from pitch to any kind of perfect agreement, so people now act, speak, or move 'in unison' without a note being played. The same sonus root for 'sound' survives in everyday words like sonic, resonate, and sonar, which is a useful reminder that the middle of unison is spelled with a single s.

How the word is built

• uni- (one)
• son (from Latin sonus: sound)