harmonic

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Pronunciation

• IPA: /hɑː(ɹ)ˈmɒnɪk/

Adjective

harmonic

1. pertaining to harmony
2. pleasant to hear; harmonious; melodious
   • 1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify )”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. In Three Books, Dublin; London: Reprinted for A. Dodd, OCLC 1033416756 ↗:

3. (mathematics) used to characterize various mathematical entities or relationships supposed to bear some resemblance to musical consonance

   The harmonic polar line of an inflection point of a cubic curve is the component of the polar conic other than the tangent line.

4. recurring periodically
5. (phonology) Exhibiting or applying constraints on what vowels (e.g. front/back vowels only) may be found near each other and sometimes in the entire word.
6. (Australianist linguistics) Of or relating to a generation an even number of generations distant from a particular person.
   • 1966, Kenneth Hale, Kinship Reflections in Syntax: Some Australian languages

     A person is harmonic with respect to members of his own generation and with respect to members of all even-numbered generations counting away from his own (e.g., his grandparents' generation, his grandchildren's generation, etc.).

Translations

• French: harmonique
• German: harmonisch
• Italian: armonico
• Russian: гармони́ческий
• Spanish: armónico

Translations

• French: harmonieux, harmonique, mélodieux, mélodique
• German: harmonisch
• Italian: armonico
• Russian: гармони́чный
• Spanish: armónico

Translations

• French: harmonique
• Italian: armonico

Noun

harmonic (plural harmonics)

1. (physics) A component frequency of the signal of a wave that is an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.
2. (music) The place where, on a bowed string instrument, a note in the harmonic series of a particular string can be played without the fundamental present.
3. (math) One of a class of functions that enter into the development of the potential of a nearly spherical mass due to its attraction.
4. (CB radio slang) One's child.
   • 1967, CQ: the Radio Amateur's Journal (volume 23, issues 7-12, page 140)

     Games for the harmonics, (children), YL's and XYL's and the OM's, plus free soda for all.

   • 1988, Amateur Radio (volume 44, issues 1-6, page 38)

     The harmonics (kids, I mean) sometimes failed to recognize me on the rare occasions when I emerged from the shack […]

Translations

• Russian: гармо́ника

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