English

Alternative forms

• clangourous

Adjective

clangorous ‎(comparative more clangorous, superlative most clangorous)

1. Making a clangor.
   • 1712, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, Volume V, No. 334, Monday, March 24,

     Who would have thought that the clangorous Noise of a Smith’s Hammers should have given the first rise to Musick?

   • 1839, Edgar Allan Poe, “The Fall of the House of Usher,”

     No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than—as if a shield of brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of silver—I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous, yet apparently muffled, reverberation.

   • 1898, H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, Book One, Chapter Twelve,

     The air was full of sound, a deafening and confusing conflict of noises—the clangorous din of the Martians, the crash of falling houses, the thud of trees, fences, sheds flashing into flame, and the crackling and roaring of fire.

   • 1998, Michael Tenzer, Balinese Music, Berkeley: Periplus Editions, Chapter One, p. 11,

     Music lovers have long discerned a splendid aural feast in the sounds of the gamelan. Emanating perpetually from communities all over the island of Bali, its sonorities sail over the ricefields on clear nights, showering the air with brilliant cascades of metallic sound, lonely whispering melodies, grandiose and clangorous marches, virtuosic rhythms, and breathtaking crescendos.