Dissonance

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A harsh, discordant combination of sounds. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    disagreeable sounds wordnet
  3. 3
    Conflicting notes that are not overtones of the note or chord sounding. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    the auditory experience of sound that lacks musical quality; sound that is a disagreeable auditory experience wordnet
  5. 5
    A state of disagreement or conflict. uncountable

    "Cognitive dissonance exists when a person possesses two cognitions, one of which is contradictory to the other"

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    a conflict of people's opinions or actions or characters wordnet
  2. 7
    An instance of that state. countable

    "In this polyphony of images in the unconscious which is beyond and outside historical time, there are complex harmonies but no dissonances: the images do not clash, but that, of course, is an aesthetic judgment and not a scientific one."

Synonyms

All synonyms
disagreementdisagreementaltercationargumentargy-bargybarney

Example

More examples

"Her conflicting desires to consume chocolate and to lose weight resulted in her experiencing cognitive dissonance."

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French dissonance, from Latin dissonantia; by surface analysis, dis- + son- + -ance.

Related phrases

cognitive dissonancecritical dissonancelyrical dissonance

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.