acoustics

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English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From acoustic +‎ -s.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /əˈkuː.stɪks/
  • Audio:(file)

Noun

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acoustics (uncountable) See -ics regarding the treatment of such nouns as singular.

  1. (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.
  2. 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

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  • 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

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

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acoustics

  1. plural of acoustic

References

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