Other forms: sounds, sounded, sounding
Sound is what your ears pick up — a door slamming, a phone buzzing on a wooden table, rain on a tent. It is a verb as well: the alarm sounded at six, and that sounds expensive.
The adjective leaves noise behind altogether and means whole, solid, undamaged: a structurally sound building, a sound sleep, sound advice, home safe and sound. Logic sharpens that to a point — a sound argument is valid and built on premises that are actually true, so an argument can be perfectly valid and still unsound if it starts from something false. Of sound mind is the legal version of the same idea. A sound is also a narrow stretch of sea between two pieces of land, which is why the map shows Puget Sound and Plymouth Sound. And to sound someone out is to test their opinion quietly, before committing to anything.
1nounhearSomething you hear; vibration travelling through the air to the ear.~66%
“The only sound in the house was rain on the roof.”
2verbgiveTo give a particular impression when heard or read about.~2%
“That sounds like a bad idea to me.”
3verbnoiseTo make a noise, or to cause something to make one.~2%
“The alarm sounded before anyone reached the door.”
4adjectivesolidIn good condition; not damaged, weak or ill.~2%
“The old barn is draughty but structurally sound.”
5adjectivesensibleSensible and reliable, and safe to act on.~2%
“She gave me sound advice about the mortgage.”
6adjectivesoundIn logic: valid, and built on premises that are true.~2%
“The argument is valid but not sound, because the first premise is false.”
7nounnarrowA narrow channel of sea between two pieces of land.~24%
“They took the boat across the sound before the light went.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 15 sentences found in the wild and placed 15 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
The adjective sound has nothing to do with noise. It comes from Old English sund, meaning safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, and behind that Proto-Germanic *sundaz, healthy. Its cousins are still alive across the North Sea — German gesund, Dutch gezond, Swedish sund — so calling an argument sound is calling it healthy.
Proto-Germanic
*sundaz — healthy
Proto-West Germanic
*sund
Old English
sund — sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous
Middle English
sound
English, today
sound
From Middle English sound, sund, isund, ȝesund, from Old English sund (“sound, safe, whole, uninjured, healthy, prosperous”), from Proto-West Germanic sund, from Proto-Germanic sundaz (“healthy”), merged with synonymous Old English ġesund, from Proto-West Germanic gasund. Cognate with Scots sound, soun (“healthy, sound”), stq suund, gesuund (“healthy”), West Frisian sûn (“healthy”), Dutch gezond (“healthy, sound”), Low German sund, gesund (“healthy”), German gesund (“healthy, sound”), Danish sund (“healthy”), Swedish sund (“sound, healthy”). Possibly related also to Dutch gezwind (“fast, quick”), German geschwind (“fast, quick”), Old English swīþ (“strong, mighty, powerful, active, severe, violent”). See swith.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA