Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
noun, plural ca·coph·o·nies.
- harsh discordance of sound; dissonance: a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
- a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: the cacophony produced by city traffic at midday.
- Music. frequent use of discords of a harshness and relationship difficult to understand.
noun plural -nies
- harsh discordant sound; dissonance
- the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language
1650s, from Greek kakophonia, from kakophonos “harsh sounding,” from kakos “bad, evil” (see caco-) + phone “voice” (see fame (n.)). Related: Cacophonous.