acoustics
noun
Form of acoustic , plural of acoustic.
Simple meaning
The study of the physical properties of sound.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhkoostiksSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əˈkustɪks
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The study of the physical properties of sound
The properties of a space that affect how sound carries.
physics
The science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena and laws.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The study of the physical properties of sound
As a plural noun, 'acoustics' refers to the scientific field of sound study or the overall sound characteristics of a space. It’s distinct from a single 'acoustic' guitar or 'sound' in general.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where you'll really hear it
Physics textbook
“The science of acoustics explores how sound waves propagate.”
Architectural review
“The concert hall's acoustics were praised for their clarity.”
Band practice discussion
“The acoustics in this room are terrible for mixing vocals.”
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.