Aurality

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The state of relating to sound perception involves how auditory experiences influence interpretation and interaction within various contexts and environments
2. This characteristic pertains to the significance of sound in shaping experiences and understanding through auditory perceptions across different situations
3. The quality of being related to auditory perception encompasses how sound influences emotional reactions and cognitive responses within various settings and experiences

Etymology: "Aurality" is a plain suffixed formation: it combines "aural," meaning relating to the ear or to hearing, with the suffix "-ity," which turns an adjective into a noun for a quality or condition. The result names the quality of being aural, or of hearing, in the way that "rationality" names the quality of being rational. The base word "aural" comes from Latin "auris," meaning ear, which also gave English words such as "auricle" and "auditory." The pairing is typical of English: a Latin-derived adjective takes the Latin-derived abstract suffix "-ity," and the two parts keep the sense of ear and hearing intact. Because "aurality" is a transparent combination of two existing parts, its meaning can be read straight from them, and it is mostly used in technical and critical writing about sound and listening.

Synonyms: sound quality, audibility, acoustic property, sonority, timbre