Standard Lemma guide

cacophonous

adj · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • General-American: /kəˈkɑfənəs/
  • UK: /kəˈkɒfənəs/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Containing, consisting of, or producing harsh, unpleasant or discordant sounds.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: inharmonious, unmusical, unmelodic

Antonyms: harmonious, musical, euphonious

2

adjective

Meaning 2

having an unpleasant sound- John McCarten

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • as cacophonous as a henyard

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: cacophonic

Antonyms: euphonious

History

Etymology

Adapted borrowing of Ancient Greek κακόφωνος (kakóphōnos) + -ous, from κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -φωνος (-phōnos, “sounding”). By surface analysis, caco- + -phonous.

Across languages

Translations

19 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Catalan: cacofònic — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Danish: kakofonisk — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Finnish: kakofoninen — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • French: cacophonique — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • German: kakophon — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • German: kakophonisch — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Greek: κακόφωνος (kakófonos) — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Italian: cacofonico — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Norwegian Bokmål: kakofonisk — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kakofonisk — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Portuguese: cacofônico — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Russian: какофони́ческий (kakofoníčeskij) — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Russian: неблагозву́чный (neblagozvúčnyj) — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Russian: нестро́йный (nestrójnyj) — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Spanish: cacofónico — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Spanish: cacófono — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Swedish: kakofonisk — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Turkish: kakofonik — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds
  • Turkish: ahenksiz — containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds