It's the Word of the Day podcast for October 5th.

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Today's word is sonorous, spelled S-O-N-O-R-U-S.

Sonoris is an adjective.

It's used in formal speech and writing to describe something that has a deep, loud, and pleasant sound.

Sonoris can also mean producing sound when struck, and imposing or impressive in effect or style. Here's the word used in a sentence from

the Chicago Tribune. The sonorous notes of a modern pipe organ were the soundtrack to my tour,

enhancing the sense of reverence the cathedral inspires.

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, is it sonorous? Don't be thrown off

by the subtle tweak in this classic conundrum, which usually ends with, does it make a sound?

It's still the same question. Sonoris,

in its oldest sense, simply describes things that make a sound when struck. The words

Latin ancestor, sonorus, is related to sonus, meaning sound. By this definition, feld

furs, wind-blown willows, etc., are all sonorous. A desktop

tapped by a pencil eraser wouldn't normally be described as sonorous, however. The word is usually

reserved for things that make a deep, loud, booming, or echoing sound. Think timpies, or toppling

timber, not tables. Sonoris is also frequently

used to describe sounds themselves, as well as voices that are deep, loud, and pleasant. And as sonorous

sounds often cause one to sit up and take notice, sonorous can also mean imposing or impressive in effect or style, as when

describing particularly affecting speech or prose. With your word of the day, I'm Peter

Sokolowski.

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