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R, the eighteenth letter of the English alphabet, is a vocal consonant. It is sometimes called a semivowel, and a liquid. See Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 178, 179, and 250-254. "R is the dog's letter and hurreth in the sound." B. Jonson.

Hence, harsh and disagreeable to the ear; dissonant. [R.] "A ragged noise of mirth." Herbert.

To give echoes; to return back, or be reverberated, as an echo; to resound; to be resonant. And a loud groan reëchoes from the main. Pope.

Consonant with the principles of a republic; as, republican sentiments or opinions; republican manners. Republican party. (U.S. Politics) (a) An earlier name of the Democratic party when it was opposed to the Federal party. Thomas Jefferson was its great leader.

The passing of a dissonant into a consonant chord by the rising or falling of the note which makes the discord. Joint resolution. See under Joint, a. -- Resolution of a force or motion (Mech.), the separation of a single force or motion into two or more which have different directions, and, taken together, are an equi…

The act of resounding; the quality or state of being resonant.

To echo or reverberate; to be resonant; as, the earth resounded with his praise.

The keeping back of an approaching consonant chord by prolonging one or more tones of a previous chord into the intermediate chord which follows; -- differing from suspension by resolving upwards instead of downwards.

y or at no great distance. The words or syllables so used must not begin with the same consonant, or if one begins with a vowel the other must begin with a consonant. The vowel sounds and accents must be the same, as also the sounds of the final consonants if there be any. For rhyme with reason may dispense, And sound…

Consonant to justice; just; as, a rightful cause.

A sound intermediate between a vowel and a consonant, or partaking of the nature of both, as in the English w and y.

Uttered in a whisper, or with the breath alone, without voice, as certain consonants, such as p, k, t, f; surd; nonvocal; aspirated.

he mouth passage, and with the nose passage remaining closed; stopped, as are the mute consonants, p, t, k, b, d, and hard g. H. Sweet.

y have inferred much from slender premises. J. H. Newman. The slender utterance of the consonants. J. Byrne.

, as distinguished from the bass drum; -- so called because (in order to render it more resonant) it has stretched across its lower head a catgut string or strings.

Applied to a palatal, a sibilant, or a dental consonant (as g in gem, c in cent, etc.) as distinguished from a guttural mute (as g in go, c in cone, etc.); -- opposed to hard.

The quality or state of being sonant.

Giving sound when struck; resonant; as, sonorous metals.

ound so fair Shak. To sound in or into, to tend to; to partake of the nature of; to be consonant with. [Obs., except in the phrase To sound in damages, below.] Soun[d]ing in moral virtue was his speech. Chaucer. -- To sound in damages (Law), to have the essential quality of damages. This is said of an action brought, n…

es; -- by some as equivalent to fricative, -- that is, as including all the continuous consonants, except the nasals m, n, ng; with the further exception, by others, of the liquids r, l, and the semivowels w, y; by others limited to f, v, th surd and sonant, and the sound of German ch, -- thus excluding the sibilants,…