resonant

resonant, sonorous, ringing, resounding, vibrant, orotund are applied to the sounds or tones of speech and music and mean conspicuously full and rich.

Resonant implies intensification or enrichment of tone by sympathetic vibration (as by the soundboard and body of a violin or by columns of air above and below the vocal cords in the larynx). It applies especially to musical tones

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the tones produced by this piano are very resonant

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{

heard the beating of the small drums—a hollow, resonant sound— Nordhoff & Hall

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but in more general use it is applicable to a sound (as of speech or a bird note) that seems more than naturally full and rich

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his deep resonant voice that makes even a line from a financial statement have the ringing, rhythmic tones of a Yeats quotation— Saarineri

}

Sonorous implies a quality of tone or speech suggesting the reverberant sound elicited by striking some metals (as copper or brass) or some kinds of glass; it may apply to a voice that is high and clear or, more often, to one that is deep and rich, but loudness and fullness are usually clearly implied

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a herald chosen for his sonorous voice— Frazer

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{

the deep, sonorous voice of the red-bearded Duke, which boomed out like a dinner gong— Doyle

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As applied to language or utterance as distinct from voice sonorous may suggest depth and richness

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its earnestness and patience, and its utter lack of synthetic drama, give many of its pages the sonorous sureness of pure philosophy— Marquand

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but is more likely to suggest an obscuring or the absence of real meaning by lush verbiage or florid presentation

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detains thought within pompous and sonorous generalities wherein controversy is as inevitable as it is incapable of solution— Dewey

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adept at distilling from the sonorous official speeches the three or four words that contain the meaning the speechmakers sought to conceal—New Yorker

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Ringing usually implies a sound made by or as if by a bell; the word suggests a vigorous, stirring quality

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her beautiful, ringing, honest voice, the expression of her whole personality— Ellis

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{

a perfect ecstasy of song—clear, ringing, copious— Burroughs

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Resounding applies not only to vocal or instrumental sounds but to any sound that seems to reecho or to awaken echoes. It usually implies the increase of sound by something that throws it back

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the sound of a great underground river, flowing through a resounding cavern— Cather

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but it may imply a loudness and fullness of sound that seem to call forth echoes

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put into circulation many resounding phrases which rang from the hustings— Krock

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{

closed the door behind him with a resounding bang— Brennan

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Vibrant, when used of sounds or tones, suggests vibration but not necessarily resonance; rather it implies qualities of life, vigor, or strong feeling

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the speaker paused a moment, his low vibrant tones faltering into silence— Zangwill

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it concentrates in one vibrant poem the despairs and the hopes of millennia— Edmund Wilson

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Orotund usually describes an acquired or an affected quality of speech. It implies fullness, roundness, and dignity of utterance which may be regarded either objectively or contemptuously

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it is rather the exquisite craftsmanship of France than the surging and orotund utterances of Leaves of Grass that has given to free verse ... its most distinctive qualities— Lowes

}

{

the voice was like no voice ever heard before— orotund, massive, absolute, like the sound of thunder— Styron

}

Analogous words: *full, replete: *rich, opulent: intensified, enhanced, heightened (see INTENSIFY)