noun
- a reechoed sound.
- the fact of being reverberated or reflected.
- something that is reverberated: Reverberations from the explosion were felt within a six-mile radius.
- an act or instance of reverberating.
- Physics. the persistence of a sound after its source has stopped, caused by multiple reflection of the sound within a closed space.
- the act or process of subjecting something to reflected heat, as in a reverberatory furnace.
late 14c., “reflection of light or heat,” from Old French reverberacion “great flash of light; intense quality,” from Medieval Latin reverberationem (nominative reverberatio), noun of action from past participle stem of Latin reverberare “beat back, strike back, repel, cause to rebound,” from re- “back” (see re-) + verberare “to strike, to beat,” from verber “whip, lash, rod,” related to verbena “leaves and branches of laurel,” from PIE *werb- “to turn, bend” (see warp (v.)). Sense of “an echo” is attested from 1620s.