echo

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See also: Echo, écho, and echó

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Middle English ecco, ekko, from Medieval Latin ecco, from Latin echo, from Ancient Greek ἠχώ (ēkhō), from ἠχή (ēkhē, “sound”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

echo (plural echoes or echos)

  1. A reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer.
    • Shakespeare
      The babbling echo mocks the hounds.
    • Alexander Pope
      The woods shall answer, and the echo ring.
    • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter X:
      “Then what is your little trouble?” “My little trouble!” I felt that this sort of thing must be stopped at its source. It was only ten minutes to dressing-for-dinner time, and we could go on along these lines for hours. “Listen, old crumpet,” I said patiently. “Make up your mind whether you are my old friend Reginald Herring or an echo in the Swiss mountains. If you're simply going to repeat every word I say –”
    • 2013 May-June, William E. Conner, “An Acoustic Arms Race”, American Scientist, volume 101, number 3, page 206-7: 
      Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
  2. (figuratively) Sympathetic recognition; response; answer.
    • Fuller
      Fame is the echo of actions, resounding them.
    • Robert Louis Stevenson
      Many kind, and sincere speeches found an echo in his heart.
  3. (computing) The displaying on the command line of the command that has just been executed.
  4. The letter E in the ICAO spelling alphabet.

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from echo

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Verb[edit]

echo (third-person singular simple present echoes, present participle echoing, simple past and past participle echoed)

  1. (of a sound or sound waves, intransitive) To reflect off of a surface and return.
  2. (by extension, transitive) To repeat back precisely what another has just said: to copy in the imitation of a natural echo.
    • John Dryden
      Those peals are echoed by the Trojan throng.
    • Keble
      The wondrous sound / Is echoed on forever.
  3. (by extension, transitive) To repeat (another's speech, opinion, etc.).
    • 2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, American Scientist, volume 101, number 4: 
      Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.
    Sid echoed his father's point of view.

Synonyms[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams[edit]

Asturian[edit]

Verb[edit]

echo

  1. first-person singular present indicative of echar

Dutch[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

echo

  1. first-person singular present indicative of echoën
  2. imperative of echoën

Ladino[edit]

Noun[edit]

echo m (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling איג׳ו)

  1. work

Latin[edit]

Noun[edit]

echo f (plural echus)

  1. echo

Declension[edit]

Fourth declension, dative plural in -ibus.

Number Singular Plural
nominative echo echūs
genitive echūs echuum
dative echuī echibus
accusative echum echūs
ablative echū echibus
vocative echo echūs

Polish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

echo n

  1. echo

Declension[edit]

    declension of echo
singular plural
nominative echo echa
genitive echa ech
dative echu echom
accusative echo echa
instrumental echem echami
locative echu echach
vocative echo echa

Portuguese[edit]

Noun[edit]

echo m (plural echos)

  1. Obsolete spelling of eco (used in Portugal until September 1911 and died out in Brazil during the 1920s).

Spanish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

echo

  1. First-person singular (yo) present indicative form of echar.
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