acoustics
English
Alternative forms
- acousticks (obsolete)
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] French acoustique, from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Ancient Greek ἀκουστικός (akoustikós), from ἀκούω (akoúō, “to hear”).
Pronunciation
Noun
acoustics (uncountable) See -ics regarding the treatment of such nouns as singular.
- The physical quality of a space for conveying sound.
- Until they discovered the non-contractual concrete slab under the stage floor, everyone at Carnegie Hall wondered, since the renovations, why the acoustics had changed.
- (physics) The science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena and laws.
- Acoustics, then, or the science of sound, is a very considerable branch of physics. - Sir John Herschel.
Usage notes
- The science was previously divided by some writers into diacoustics, which explains the properties of sounds coming directly from (sic! Webster) the ear; and catacoustica, which treats of reflected sounds or echoes. This division is now obsolete.
Related terms
Translations
quality of a space for doing music
|
physics: a science of sounds
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.