consonant

plural consonants

1. human sciencesA sound that results from the passage of air through restrictions of the oral cavity; any sound that is not the nucleus of a syllable, the nucleus generally being a vowel.
2. A letter representing the sound of a consonant.

   “Tell me, has right anything to do with the law?” I asked. “You have used the wrong initial consonant,” he smiled in answer. “Might?” I queried; and he nodded his head.

   1908 February 19, Jack London, chapter 4, in The Iron Heel, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC

   1 more example

   Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

comparative more consonant · superlative most consonant

1. Consistent, harmonious, compatible, or in agreement.

   Each one pretends that his opinion […] is consonant to the words there used.

   1710, William Beveridge, The true nature of the Christian church, the office of its ministers, and the means of grace administred by them explain'd. In twelve sermons

   2 more examples

   Cheerfulness, even gaiety, is consonant with every species of virtue and practice of religion, and I think it inconsistent only with impiety and vice.

   1900, Sabine Baring-Gould, “The Rev. Mr. Carter, Parson-Publican”, in Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events

   This essential right of the courts to be free of intimidation and coercion was held to be consonant with a recognition that freedom of the press must be allowed in the broadest scope compatible with the supremacy of order.

   1946, United States Supreme Court, Pennekamp v. Florida 328 U.S. 331,334

2. Having the same sound.

   1645-1650, James Howell, Epistolae Ho-Elianae consonant words and syllables

3. entertainmentHarmonizing together; accordant.

   consonant tones; consonant chords

4. Of or relating to consonants; made up of, or containing many, consonants.

   No Russian whose dissonant consonant name / Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.

   1813, Thomas Moore, Intercepted Letters, or the Two-Penny Post-Bag