cacophony

Meanings

1. A harsh, loud mix of sounds.
2. A confused mix of voices or opinions.

Example sentences

• "A cacophony of car horns filled the street."

  Level C2, Meaning 1

• "The market was a cacophony of voices and music."

  Level C2, Meaning 1

• "We woke to a cacophony of birdsong."

  Level C2, Meaning 1

• "The debate turned into a cacophony of angry voices."

  Level C2, Meaning 2

Synonyms and antonyms

Look-alikes and common mistakes

• noise : Noise is any unwanted sound. A cacophony is a harsh mix of many sounds at once.

Word family and forms

Forms: cacophonies

Word partners

Words and phrases that often go with "cacophony".

• a cacophony of sounds
• a cacophony of voices
• a deafening cacophony
• a cacophony of horns
• a cacophony of noise
• create a cacophony

Origin

Cacophony comes through French from the Greek word kakophonia. It is built from kakos, meaning bad, and phone, meaning sound or voice. The same Greek parts give us phone, microphone, and symphony.

Checked against: Wiktionary, the free dictionary, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Dictionary.com.

How to remember it

Caco means bad and phony means sound: cacophony is bad sound, the opposite of a symphony.

Test yourself

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