Unacoustic
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Having poor acoustic properties; not conducive to the projection of sound; tending to muffle or muddy sounds.
"The application of staccato chords has to be strictly limited in unacoustic places, but in resonant buildings, staccato chords, used judiciously, have a very fine effect, as they evoke the echoes from the building in a more effective way than a long sustained chord, however promptly released."
- 2 Lacking sound or sonority; silent or muffled.
"The deaf-mutes from a separate community among the hearing people. The most interesting question in their psychology is: What is their conception of the outer world? Of an unacoustic, mute world?"
- 3 Having a frequency outside the range of audible sounds.
"These results deserve a brief discussion, because they contain the first indications about the "unacoustic" effects in shock reflection : That is, the deviations which shocks of finite strength present from the "acoustic" laws, which hold asymptotically for shocks of infinitesimal strength."
- 4 Not acoustic; electronically generated or amplified.
"Our next respondent agrees with the previous opinion but also points out interest in using the computer for synthesizing original 'unacoustic' sounds."
Example
More examples"The application of staccato chords has to be strictly limited in unacoustic places, but in resonant buildings, staccato chords, used judiciously, have a very fine effect, as they evoke the echoes from the building in a more effective way than a long sustained chord, however promptly released."
Etymology
From un- + acoustic.
More for "unacoustic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.