dissonance meaning

Noun: dissonance  disununs

1. A conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters
   - disagreement, dissension 
2. The auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience
   - noise, racket 
3. Disagreeable sounds

Derived forms: dissonances

See also: dissonant, dissonate

Type of: auditory sensation, conflict, sound, sound property

Antonym: harmony

Encyclopedia: Dissonance

[Electronics]
The unpleasant effect (especially in music) produced by nonharmonious combinations of sounds.

[Medicine]
n : inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs —see COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

Examples

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1. the harm is done, the dissonances multiply.
2. dissonance among the three partners doomed the project.
3. in acoustics he studied the propagation of sound and musical consonance and dissonance.
4. the concerts were more enjoyable without all the horrid modern dissonance which nobody really understood.
5. cognitive dissonance is also applied to a perceived incongruity between a person's attitudes and his behaviour.