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acoustic

UK/əˈkuː.stɪk/US/əˈku.stɪk/
adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,408 of 15,258mostly written

Acoustic means to do with sound, or played without electrical amplification. An acoustic guitar, acoustic panels, the acoustics of the hall.

In music it means unplugged, and an acoustic set is a familiar format. The plural acoustics means how a room handles sound, and a hall with poor acoustics cannot be fixed by turning anything up. The Greek behind it means of hearing.

Definitions of acoustic

  1. 1adjectiveacousticTo do with sound, or played without electrical amplification.C1

    “He played an acoustic guitar by the campfire.”

acoustic is a quality.

Where it comes from

Greek akoustikos means of or for hearing, from akouein, to hear.

  1. Medieval Latin

    acousticus

  2. English, today

    acoustic

Borrowed from Medieval Latin acousticus. Borrowed from Medieval Latin acousticus, acūsticus, from Ancient Greek ἀκουστῐκός (“of or for hearing”), from ἀκούω + -ῐκός.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

acoustic in the wild

  • Robert Bruce Lindsay's "Wheel of Acoustics" is a well-accepted overview of the various fields in acoustics.

    Acoustics

  • The steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar that descends from the gut-strung Romantic guitar, but is strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound.

    Steel-string acoustic guitar

  • Like the modern classical guitar, it is often referred to simply as an acoustic guitar, or sometimes as a folk guitar.

    Steel-string acoustic guitar

  • Early forms were hollow-body semi-acoustic guitars, while solid body guitars developed later.

    Electric guitar

  • Traditional acoustic guitars include the flat top guitar (typically with a large sound hole) or the archtop guitar, which is sometimes called a "jazz guitar".

    Guitar

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the acousticus family

acousticacoustics

acoustic — used about once every 3,490 pages · #8,408 · point at the bar for the others