- harsh or unpleasant discordance of sound; dissonance: After living in the country, it's difficult for me to adjust to the cacophony produced by city traffic.
- a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds: The sound effects included a cacophony of hoots, cackles, and wails.
- frequent use of harsh, discordant notes or chords that seem to be patternless and without connection to each other.
- harsh discordant sound; dissonance
- the use of unharmonious or dissonant speech sounds in language
