Con"so*nant (?), a. [L.
consonans, -antis; p. pr. of consonare to
sound at the same time, agree; con- + sonare to
sound: cf. F. consonnant. See Sound to make a
noise.] 1. Having agreement; congruous;
consistent; according; -- usually followed by with or
to.
Each one pretends that his opinion . . . is
consonant to the words there used.
Bp. Beveridge.
That where much is given there shall be much
required is a thing consonant with natural equity.
Dr. H. More.
2. Having like sounds.
Consonant words and syllables.
Howell.
3. (Mus.) harmonizing together;
accordant; as, consonant tones, consonant
chords.
4. Of or pertaining to consonants; made
up of, or containing many, consonants.
No Russian whose dissonant consonant
name
Almost shatters to fragments the trumpet of fame.
T. Moore.
Con"so*nant, n. [L.
consonans, -antis.] An articulate sound which
in utterance is usually combined and sounded with an open sound
called a vowel; a member of the spoken alphabet other than a
vowel; also, a letter or character representing such a
sound.
Consonants are divided into various classes, as mutes,
spirants, sibilants, nasals, semivowels, etc. All of them are
sounds uttered through a closer position of the organs than that
of a vowel proper, although the most open of them, as the
semivowels and nasals, are capable of being used as if vowels,
and forming syllables with other closer consonants, as in the
English feeble (-b'l), taken (-k'n). All the
consonants excepting the mutes may be indefinitely, prolonged in
utterance without the help of a vowel, and even the mutes may be
produced with an aspirate instead of a vocal explosion. Vowels
and consonants may be regarded as the two poles in the scale of
sounds produced by gradual approximation of the organ, of speech
from the most open to the closest positions, the vowel being more
open, the consonant closer; but there is a territory between them
where the sounds produced partake of the qualities of both.
&fist; "A consonant is the result of audible friction,
squeezing, or stopping of the breath in some part of the mouth
(or occasionally of the throath.) The main distinction between
vowels and consonants is, that while in the former the mouth
configuration merely modifies the vocalized breath, which is
therefore an essential element of the vowels, in consonants the
narrowing or stopping of the oral passage is the foundation of
the sound, and the state of the glottis is something secondary."
H. Sweet.
