sonorant

[ suh-nawr-uhnt, -nohr-, soh- ]

noun

1. a voiced sound that is less sonorous than a vowel but more sonorous than a stop or fricative and that may occur as either a sonant or a consonant, as (l, r, m, n, y, w).
2. a speech sound characterized by relatively free air passage through some channel, as a vowel, semivowel, liquid, or nasal. Compare obstruent.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or having the properties of a sonorant.

sonorant

/ ˈsɒnərənt /

noun

1. one of the frictionless continuants or nasals (l, r, m, n, ŋ ) having consonantal or vocalic functions depending on its situation within the syllable
2. either of the two consonants represented in English orthography by w or y and regarded as either consonantal or vocalic articulations of the vowels iː and uː

Other Words From

• nonso·norant adjective noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of sonorant¹

< Latin sonōr- (stem of sonor ) sound, noise + -ant; sonorous

Word History and Origins

Origin of sonorant¹

from Latin sonor a noise + -ant

Example Sentences

Mallinckrodt announced in April that it plans to change its name to Sonorant Therapeutics, spinning off ‘Mallinckrodt Inc.’ as a separate company for its generics business.

From Washington Post

Hannaham’s horrifying and sonorant account of a widow and her son joins Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, Angela Flournoy’s The Turner House, Mat Johnson’s Loving Day, Tracy K. Smith’s Ordinary Light, Nell Zink’s Mislaid, and a rich slew of others in its attention not just to what seems irrevocable about blackness in the United States, but what seems fluid.

From Slate

Related Words

• booming
• earsplitting
• echoing
• loud
• resounding
• roaring
• sonorous
• strident
• throbbing
• thundering
• thunderous