sound
SOUND meaning: a vibration or noise perceived by the ear; this five-letter word scores 6 Scrabble points.
Adjective 4 meanings
Healthy.
“He was safe and sound.”
Complete, solid, or secure.
“Fred assured me the floorboards were sound.”
Having the property of soundness.
Quiet and deep.
“Sound asleep means sleeping peacefully, and often deeply.”
Adverb 1 meaning
Soundly.
Noun 4 meanings
A sensation perceived by the ear caused by the vibration of air or some other medium.
“He turned when he heard the sound of footsteps behind him. Nobody made a sound.”
A vibration capable of causing such sensations.
A distinctive style and sonority of a particular musician, orchestra etc.
Noise without meaning; empty noise.
Verb 4 meanings
To produce a sound.
“When the horn sounds, take cover.”
To convey an impression by one's sound.
“He sounded good when we last spoke.”
To be conveyed in sound; to be spread or published; to convey intelligence by sound.
To arise or to be recognizable as arising in or from a particular area of law, or as likely to result in a particular kind of legal remedy.
“In my opinion this claim sounds in damages rather than in an injunction.”
Etymology
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.
Similar and opposite words
In everyday use, sound is what you hear when vibrations travel through air or another medium. The word also describes a musician’s or orchestra’s distinctive style, and can mean noise without meaning. SOUND is a common English word, not merely a playable arrangement of letters: it is accepted in Collins, NWL2023, and ENABLE.
SOUND at a glance
- SOUND has five letters and scores 6 points in Scrabble.
- Its Scrabble tiles are S, O, U, and N at 1 point each, plus D at 2.
- SOUND is both an allowed Wordle guess and a possible answer.
- The word has four anagrams and nine one-letter neighbors.
What does SOUND mean?
SOUND most often names a sensation heard because something vibrates. A bell, a voice, or wind moving through branches can each produce sound; the word can also mean the vibration itself.
Music gives the word another familiar use: a band or performer has a distinctive sound. In a different sense, “sound” can mean empty noise without a real message. Those meanings share the idea of something heard, but context tells you which one fits.
How does SOUND score in word games?
SOUND’s Scrabble total is 6: four tiles contribute 1 point each, while D contributes 2. That makes D the only tile above the basic value, but it still supplies only a third of the word’s score. A letter premium or word multiplier changes the result.
SOUND works as a Wordle answer and an allowed guess. It has no repeated letter, so each tile tests a separate position. That gives you five distinct letters to read from the color feedback.
The one-letter neighbors include FOUND, ROUND, BOUND, POUND, and WOUND, all sharing the -OUND ending. The four anagrams are NODUS, UDONS, UNSOD, and UNDOS; they are much less familiar than SOUND, so check your game's word list before relying on them. Among rhymes, FOUND and GROUND are familiar examples.
Rhymes with sound
All rhymes- AROUND7
- FOUND9
- GROUND8
- ROUND6
- FUND8
- BACKGROUND20
- BOUND8
- POUND8
- UNDERGROUND14
- WOUND9
- COMPOUND15
- PROFOUND14
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Questions people ask
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