consonant

From Middle English consonant or consonaunt, from Old French consonant, from Latin cōnsonāns (“sounding with”), from the prefix con- (“with”) + the present participle sonāns (“sounding”), from sonāre (“to sound”). The Latin is a calque of Ancient Greek σύμφωνον (súmphōnon).

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: kŏn'sənənt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.sə.nənt/
• (US) enPR: kän's(ə)nənt, IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.sə.nənt/, /ˈkɑns.nənt/

  • Audio (Midland US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒnsənənt, -ɑnsənənt, -ɑnsnənt

Examples (letter)
The consonant letters in the English alphabet are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Z, and sometimes Y.

consonant (plural consonants)

1. (phonetics) A sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the nucleus of a syllable, the nucleus generally being a vowel.

   Hyponym: obstruent

2. A letter representing the sound of a consonant.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   • 1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 4, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:

     “Tell me, has right anything to do with the law?” I asked. “You have used the wrong initial consonant,” he smiled in answer. “Might?” I queried; and he nodded his head.

• → Pohnpeian: konsonan
• → Swahili: konsonanti

consonant (comparative more consonant, superlative most consonant)

1. Consistent, harmonious, compatible, or in agreement.
   • 1710, William Beveridge, The true nature of the Christian church, the office of its ministers, and the means of grace administred by them explain'd. In twelve sermons:

     Each one pretends that his opinion […] is consonant to the words there used.

   • 1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, “The Rev. Mr. Carter, Parson-Publican”, in Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events:

     Cheerfulness, even gaiety, is consonant with every species of virtue and practice of religion, and I think it inconsistent only with impiety and vice.

   • 1946, United States Supreme Court, Pennekamp v. Florida 328 U.S. 331,334

     This essential right of the courts to be free of intimidation and coercion was held to be consonant with a recognition that freedom of the press must be allowed in the broadest scope compatible with the supremacy of order.

2. Having the same sound.
   • 1645-1650, James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elianae

     consonant words and syllables

3. (music) Harmonizing together; accordant.

   consonant tones; consonant chords

4. Of or relating to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.
   • 1813, Thomas Moore, Intercepted Letters, or the Two-Penny Post-Bag:

     No Russian whose dissonant consonant name / Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:consonant.

• disconsonant
• dissonant
• discordant

• consonance
• consonantal

• vowel
• semivowel
• consonant on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from Latin cōnsonantem.

• IPA^(key): /konsoˈnan/
• Rhymes: -an
• Syllabification: con‧so‧nant

consonant (plural consonants)

1. consonant

consonant f (plural consonants)

1. consonant

• consonantico

Learned borrowing from Latin cōnsonantem. First attested in the 14th century.^[1]

• IPA^(key): (Northern, Central) [kun.suˈnan]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic, Valencia) [kon.soˈnant]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [kon.soˈnan]

• Audio (Barcelona):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ant

consonant m or f (masculine and feminine plural consonants)

1. consonant

consonant f (plural consonants)

1. consonant

• consonàntic

• “consonant”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “consonant” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “consonant”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sɔ.nɑ̃/

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (file)

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

consonant (feminine consonante, masculine plural consonants, feminine plural consonantes)

1. consonant

• “consonant”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ˈkõː.sɔ.nant]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [ˈkɔn.so.nant]

cōnsonant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of cōnsonō

Learned borrowing from Latin consonans, or borrowed from French consonant.

• IPA^(key): /kon.soˈnant/

consonant m or n (feminine singular consonantă, masculine plural consonanți, feminine/neuter plural consonante)

1. consonant

• “consonant”, in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language) (in Romanian), 2004–2026