cacophonous
/kəˈkɑfənəs/adjective
cacophonous is spelled C-A-C-O-P-H-O-N-O-U-S: 11 letters. It appears about once in every 11 million words in written English, the 101,613th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, cacophonous means “Containing, consisting of, or producing harsh, unpleasant or discordant sounds” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in cacophonous?
| Letters | 11: C-A-C-O-P-H-O-N-O-U-S |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 11 million words; the 101,613th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is cacophonous?
Cacophonous appears about once in every 11 million words in written English, the 101,613th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce cacophonous?
- US /kəˈkɑfənəs/
- UK /kəˈkɒfənəs/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cacophonous.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of cacophonous
- more cacophonous comparative
- most cacophonous superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does cacophonous mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Containing, consisting of, or producing harsh, unpleasant or discordant sounds.
A colony of pelicans can be cacophonous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Cacophonous in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense containing or consisting of unpleasant sounds:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | cacophonique |
| German | kakophon, kakophonisch |
| Portuguese | cacofônico |
| Spanish | cacofónico, cacófono |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does cacophonous come from?
Adapted borrowing of Ancient Greek κακόφωνος (kakóphōnos) + -ous, from κακός (kakós, “bad”) + -φωνος (-phōnos, “sounding”). By surface analysis, caco- + -phonous.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).