‘The Violin Concerto starts off, for instance, with dissonant sustained chords auguring a foray into some atonal world of austerity and gray shadings.’
‘It may be to this very fact that a certain unwritten ‘law’ is owed: this law prefers that melodic notes dissonant to the prevailing harmony should be resolved by step.’
‘The dissonant chords melt into nothingness giving the impression of not wanting to fight anymore, a cruel world left to savage itself away.’
‘It also sounds heavily dissonant due to tone clusters and many tritones.’
‘The simplicity reminds one of a nursery rhyme, but the melodies and chords are dissonant, insidious.’
1.1Unsuitable or unusual in combination; clashing.
‘Jackson employs both harmonious and dissonant colour choices’
‘The lack of volume can be particularly dissonant when bus conversations clash with your music during the daily commute.’
‘Whatever the origins of the malaise, this dissonant combination of urban potential, challenges and inadequate responses can only lead to more frustration and cynicism among citizens.’
‘If her slightly warped geometry and dissonant, high-keyed colors sometimes suggest the cartoon world of Elizabeth Murray, Cecily Kahn is more deeply rooted in the tradition of abstraction.’
‘Cappiello is the Italian-born father of the Modern Poster, whose technique utilized strong, flat and sometimes dissonant colors against dark backgrounds.’
‘His forms are typically harsh and jagged, and his colours dissonant.’
‘This community consists of a chorus of different and sometimes dissonant voices, all funded centrally to foster diversity.’
‘He is, of course, also drawn to printed textiles and to the way you can juxtapose apparently dissonant colours to create new harmonies.’
‘Cognitive dissonance theory - the idea that people try to avoid having inconsistent or dissonant thoughts - could also play a role, the researchers say.’
‘Rather, we will hear two different and dissonant styles of speaking and they will spawn endless confusions between them.’
‘Like Gideon, her mother only existed in scraps of moments, in colors and sound, all disconnected and dissonant.’
‘His acquisition sparks dissonant responses from his two best friends, Marc, an aeronautical engineer and Yvan, who after a life in ‘textiles’ has found a new job as a sales agent for a wholesale stationery business.’
‘THERE ARE TWO Africas: the bush - ancient, agrarian, slow to change - and the city - vibrant, dissonant, evolving by the minute.’
‘The first dissonant note of the debate came from an MP who accused the president of ‘scurrying off to his bunker’ after the attacks.’
‘I just don't see what is so dissonant about that.’
‘They're uncomfortable, and sometimes dissonant, but mostly they're strangely fun, which makes all these other qualities more bearable.’
‘They evoke dissonant narratives of colonial history.’
‘The complexity seems more interesting to me aesthetically, the tying together of multiple voices into a kind of whole from consonant to dissonant.’
‘I suppose this dissonant finding is expected, if disappointing.’
‘Why are there all these dissonant voices giving speeches, some of them conspicuous?’
‘It is as this dissonant crescendo of drama builds that the novel's cleverness reveals itself.’
Late Middle English (in the sense ‘clashing’): from Old French, or from Latin dissonant- ‘being discordant’, from the verb dissonare, from dis- ‘apart’ + sonare ‘to sound’.
Are You Learning English? Here Are Our Top English Tips