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reverberate

verb

Simple meaning

Of sound: to bounce against one or more surfaces.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

rihvurberuht

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ɹɪˈvɝbɚət

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. intransitive

    Of sound: to (repeatedly) bounce against one or more surfaces; to echo or re-echo, to resound.

  2. Be reflected as heat, sound, or light or shock waves

    “The waves reverberate as far away as the end of the building.”

  3. intransitive

    Chiefly followed by to or with: of a place or thing: to ring or vibrate with many echoing sounds; to re-echo, to resound.

  4. transitive

    To cause (a sound) to be (repeatedly) bounced against one or more surfaces; to re-echo.

  5. intransitivefigurative

    Of information, news, etc.: to be spread widely through repetition.

  6. transitivechiefly sciences

    To repeatedly reflect (heat, light, or other radiation).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Be reflected as heat, sound, or light or shock waves

Used this way, reverberate is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Heard in a sentence
“The waves reverberate as far away as the end of the building.”
Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use reverberate

  • “The discussions with my teacher reverberated throughout my adult life.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

reverberate throughwords reverberatereverberate backechoes reverberatesounds reverberate

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • resound

    To sound again.

  • ring

    To resound, reverberate, echo.

  • echo

    Of a sound or sound waves: to reflect off a surface and return.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: of sound

resound

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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.