acoustics
English
Alternative forms
- acousticks (obsolete)
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /əˈkuː.stɪks/
Audio (file)
Noun
acoustics (uncountable) See -ics regarding the treatment of such nouns as singular.
- (physics) The science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena and laws.
- 1831, John Herschel, Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, London: Printed for Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, & Green: Paternoster Row, and John Taylor, Upper Gower Street, page 248:
- "Acoustics, then, or the science of sound, is a very consderable branch of physics, and one which has been cultivated from the earliest ages.
- The properties of a space that affect how sound carries.
- The acoustics in the opera house gave the whole concert a spooky sound.
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 catacoustics, which treats of reflected sounds or echoes. This division is now obsolete.
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
the science of sounds, teaching their nature, phenomena and laws
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References
- “acoustics”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “acoustics”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
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