UNISON • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Unison

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/jˈunəsən/ /jˈunɪsən/ Listen

noun

Unison n.

Harmony; agreement; concord; union.

(Mus.) Identity in pitch; coincidence of sounds proceeding from an equality in the number of vibrations made in a given time by two or more sonorous bodies. Parts played or sung in octaves are also said to be in unison, or in octaves. Note: If two cords of the same substance have equal length, thickness, and tension, they are said to be in unison, and their sounds will be in unison. Sounds of very different qualities and force may be in unison, as the sound of a bell may be in unison with a sound of a flute. Unison, then, consists in identity of pitch alone, irrespective of quality of sound, or timbre, whether of instruments or of human voices. A piece or passage is said to be sung or played in unison when all the voices or instruments perform the same part, in which sense unison is contradistinguished from harmony.

A single, unvaried. (R.)

In unison, in agreement; agreeing in tone; in concord.

adjective

Unison adj.

Sounding alone. (Obs.) "(sounds) intermixed with voice, Choral or unison."

(Mus.) Sounded alike in pitch; unisonant; unisonous; as, unison passages, in which two or more parts unite in coincident sound.

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Etymology of 'Unison'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Unison" Quotes from Famous Books

... one heart, and the crude response of another heart. The two answering and blending into one, in the primitive days, made a rhymed couplet—one. It is "call" and "sponse," born to vibrate in complementary unison with two hearts that beat as one. "Did all Negroes carry on courtship in this manner in olden days?" No, not by any means. Only the more primitive by custom, and otherwise used such forms of courtship. The more intelligent of those who came out of slavery had made the white man's ...

— Negro Folk Rhymes - Wise and Otherwise: With a Study • Thomas W. Talley

... committed none while under the eye of Madam de Warrens. She was my conductor, and ever led me right; my attachment for her became my only passion, and what proves it was not a giddy one, my heart and understanding were in unison. It is true that a single sentiment, absorbing all my faculties, put me out of a capacity of learning even music: but this was not my fault, since to the strongest inclination, I added the utmost assiduity. I was attentive and thoughtful; ...

— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau

... the elder formed an amusing contrast with the laughing eye and untamable vivacity of the younger; but they smiled and they wept in unison. They thought and acted in different but not discordant keys. On all momentous occasions, they reasoned and felt alike. In ordinary cases, they separated, as it were, into different tracks; but this diversity was productive not of ...

— Arthur Mervyn - Or, Memoirs of the Year 1793 • Charles Brockden Brown

... George, on that great inland water, sing their national song, "Brittania rules the waves;" no more the echoes of that stirring air rolling over the silver surface of the Lake to its islands and shores would arouse the sturdy dwellers there to join in glad unison in those lofty strains which everywhere, the world over, melt into one every true and loyal British heart. He then was moved by the sadder thought, that on that night the sun of British power which had hitherto dominated the great Northern Lakes of ...

— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5 • Various

... must be a harmonious one, and must be thoroughly in unison with the necessary phenomena and demands of ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

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