How to Use harmonic in a Sentence

harmonic

1 of 2 adjective
Definition of harmonicnext
Synonyms for harmonicnext
  • The fretted note should be the same pitch as the harmonic.
    — Henry Robertson, Popular Mechanics, 7 Dec. 2018
  • The harmonic chorus is like a warm balm on a cold winter’s night.
    — Karla Pope, Good Housekeeping, 27 Nov. 2022
  • The Aves, coached by Pete Muehlenkamp, combined with the Sycamore boys a capella choir on a harmonic hardball video.
    — Scott Springer, Cincinnati.com, 26 Mar. 2018
  • No threat of eviction Just beyond the limits of the Durango park, a train slices through the mountain view with a harmonic huff.
    — Sarah Matusek, The Christian Science Monitor, 10 Jan. 2022
  • That was one of those songs that came at the peak of our harmonic experimentation with rock and blues.
    — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 2 Feb. 2021
  • Something else to notice is there are some pretty abrupt harmonic shifts in there.
    — The New York Times, New York Times, 27 Oct. 2022
  • The dish ping pongs between creamy sesame notes and bright acidity, harmonic and distinct at once.
    — Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press, 4 Dec. 2019
  • To this, Cole added a feel for the blues that Hines lacked, plus a forward-looking harmonic vocabulary all his own.
    — Terry Teachout, WSJ, 14 Aug. 2020
  • Most of the new pieces were disarmingly simple, at least in harmonic terms.
    — Allan Kozinn, WSJ, 21 July 2021
  • Corea’s music, even for small groups, is rich with melodic and harmonic detail.
    — George Varga, sandiegouniontribune.com, 17 Mar. 2018
  • His harmonic language has sustained a great deal of popular and an even greater deal of show music.
    — Detroit Free Press, 27 Nov. 2021
  • The structural and harmonic rigor of Bach is alien to Balter’s unsettled sound world.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 29 Apr. 2018
  • Lots of them sprang up right before the turn of the 20th century, when all sorts of formal, harmonic and aesthetic bolts were beginning to loosen across the arts.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 6 Nov. 2022
  • At the end of the melody, Shorter introduces a catchy fillip of a phrase, repeats it, then turns it over in a few different harmonic contexts.
    — Giovanni Russonello, New York Times, 2 Mar. 2023
  • The third movement supplied pastoral effects with oboe and harmonic flute stops.
    — Dallas News, 15 Feb. 2023
  • The works from the 17th through the 19th centuries, in Ms. Cahill’s overview, are etched in the harmonic and rhythmic syntax of their times, and their composers’ concerns match those of their male contemporaries.
    — Allan Kozinn, WSJ, 12 Nov. 2022
  • At the other end is an actuator arm that's connected to a harmonic drive.
    — Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica, 8 Nov. 2018
  • The dressing does need to bring it all together with harmonic sweetness and acidity.
    — Bonnie S. Benwick, charlotteobserver, 1 May 2018
  • Plus, the wonder of seeing a spinning disc with grooves producing harmonic sound never fades.
    — Julian Chokkattu, Wired, 30 Dec. 2020
  • Their approach is one that highlights the harmonic and rhythmic complexities of the music.
    — John Adamian, courant.com, 22 Sep. 2019
  • From a design standpoint, patterns can also help our homes feel harmonic.
    — Kate Morgan, WSJ, 29 Sep. 2023
  • The two have not yet established a harmonic connection.
    — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 Aug. 2022
  • Besides using a tuner, a quick way to check intonation is to play a note on the 12th fret and then play the same harmonic on the 12th fret by lightly depressing your finger on the middle of the fret and letting the note ring out.
    — Henry Robertson, Popular Mechanics, 7 Dec. 2018
  • The comparison behind the program was skewed by the choice of pre-tonal music for its harmonic or rhythmic oddities.
    — Washington Post, 9 Dec. 2019
  • And Schubert’s score will be joined by Mathis Nitschke’s original music — which joins the songs together, picking up the harmonic thread of one and transitioning to that of the next.
    — Joshua Barone, New York Times, 20 Sep. 2023
  • Spruce is a stiff, light-weight, bright sounding wood with complex harmonic overtones and robust sound projection.
    — Henry Robertson, Popular Mechanics, 22 Jan. 2019
  • Fairchild also allows that Little Big Town does have its harmonic limits.
    — Nancy Kruh, Peoplemag, 16 Sep. 2022
  • In one of her last charting hits, a robust-sounding Lynn makes the most of this MOR ballad’s orchestral sweep, twinkly arrangements and rich harmonic backgrounds.
    — A.d. Amorosi, Variety, 4 Oct. 2022
  • Rich passages of harmonic concord suddenly split into straying sonorities, as though pulled apart by a prism.
    — Michael Andor Brodeur, Washington Post, 11 Jan. 2024
  • To do so, engineers had to build the world’s most robust AC networks, including huge amounts of reactive-power compensation and a lot of filtering to prevent harmonic feedback.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 28 Dec. 2023
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harmonic

2 of 2 noun
  • The bright sounds of a harmonic can be heard logging into Zoom.
    — Nick Romano, EW.com, 12 Sep. 2022
  • The part that is A.I. is taking the harmonics and the timbre of the vocal and moving them to be consistent with my voice, as opposed to the person’s original voice.
    — Joe Coscarelli, New York Times, 24 May 2023
  • Steven is looking for transcendence in the just-right harmonic resolution; his wife finds it in a Windex bottle.
    — Ann Hornaday, Washington Post, 3 Oct. 2023
  • High string harmonics reminded me of the relentless sun.
    — Mark Swed, latimes.com, 3 May 2018
  • The piece is a technical tour de force for the solo violin, including the slippery sounds of the player slurring through passages of harmonics.
    — Elaine Schmidt, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 2 Feb. 2018
  • The sparse textures permit him to deploy his scale over long stretches without harmonic monotony, but there are a limited number of timbral changes to be rung from that combo.
    — Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 June 2023
  • There's talk of the harmonics of music created between one vibrating celestial body and the next, a school of thought to which Dr. Cervi apparently subscribes.
    — David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 18 Dec. 2017
  • The fundamental frequency and harmonics are far less well defined, which indicates audio distortion and a much rougher tone to the sound.
    — Jeff Kao and Jack Gillum, ProPublica, 25 June 2019
  • It was scored for contrabass, and contrasted vigorous open string strums with ethereal harmonics played all the way below the fingerboard.
    — Christian Hertzog, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Feb. 2023
  • Fineberg’s complex timbres, including a memorable overlay of harp on a bed of rich noise, remain static for long periods, in the same way that a D.J.’s tracks might stay in a limited harmonic and rhythmic world for hours.
    — Jeffrey Arlo Brown, New York Times, 10 Mar. 2023
  • Over three extended pieces, his striated long tones glisten with sour harmonics, cavernous overtones, and breath surges that make the music expand and contract in visceral waves.
    — Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, 8 Dec. 2017
  • To disappear now into a bowl of her pork belly and dumpling soup at her Beverly Boulevard cafe, Spoon by H, is to taste the food of a chef who’s been thinking about improvisation and texture and harmonics her entire life.
    — Los Angeles Times, 10 Oct. 2019
  • The exhaust soundtrack has been engineered to have the bass-heavy harmonics that buyers reportedly associate with grand tourers.
    — Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 15 May 2019
  • This meditative piece worked best when the mood was quiet and undulating, especially in the passage in high harmonics near the end, so otherworldly in sound, almost like a theremin.
    — Washington Post, 23 Jan. 2020
  • There appear, through some weird alchemy of harmonics, phantom instruments.
    — Geoff Dyer, New York Times, 4 Oct. 2017
  • Wade is a singer, song-crafter and guitarist whose sultry voice and back-up acoustic band bring a fresh interpretation to Americana, Bluegrass and Blues through brilliant vocal arrangements and harmonics.
    — courant.com, 15 Nov. 2019
  • Successive bright bands at regular intervals above the fundamental represent the harmonics of the speech.
    — Jeff Kao and Jack Gillum, ProPublica, 25 June 2019
  • At the time, they were all dismissed as hoaxes or mistaken identities, but Gillespie believes some of them may have been genuine, the product of a signal leakage known as harmonics that was common on early radio transmitters.
    — Glenn Garvin, miamiherald, 6 July 2017
  • The business end has lots of interchangeable options, too, including a fiber optic bead, a tunnel sight, and a muzzle brake that is said to improve accuracy by altering barrel harmonics.
    — Joseph Albanese, Field & Stream, 28 Feb. 2020
  • Those tiny loops of string whose harmonics were thought to breathe form into every particle and force known to nature (including elusive gravity) hardly even appear anymore on chalkboards at conferences.
    — Quanta Magazine, 15 Sep. 2016
  • Elliott’s playing is both muscular and refined; his delicate astral harmonics at the outset sang out an important early starting point.
    — Luke Shulze, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Aug. 2023
  • Despite challenges in tuning the edgy harmonics, this was a brilliant rendition, shrill trills gilding the line, the strings chasing the piano’s statement and ending altogether with an emphatic punctuation.
    — By Libby Hanssen, kansascity, 16 July 2017
  • The adaptive dampers prevent unwanted harmonics even when dealing with gnarly surfaces at inappropriate speeds.
    — Mike Duff, Car and Driver, 10 Feb. 2020
  • Later, as Adonis sets off on the hunt, two flutes and a piccolo evoke his fatal insouciance, issuing birdlike high harmonics and an Aeolian whistling that is produced by blowing directly into the instrument.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 12 June 2023
  • In the piano bell tones where corresponding harmonics are manually played more softly above the fundamental pitch, Angelich’s balance was perfection.
    — Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 27 Apr. 2018
  • The first movement was a loping dance, ablaze with harmonics and left-hand pizzicati; Marwood handled extremes of register and mood, switching easily between aggressive fiddling and moments of delicacy with polish and control.
    — Luke Schulze, San Diego Union-Tribune, 4 Aug. 2023
  • Adding to the artificiality of this performance, which swam principally on the fins of Weilerstein’s stunning cello harmonics, was the sense of disconnect from the actual environment, lack of context and occasion.
    — Los Angeles Times, 5 Aug. 2019
  • Players were often asked to abandon the standard twelve pitches: glissandos, microtones, whistling harmonics, and other breathy noises proliferated.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2017
  • And there were several conjectures floating around that said harmonic coordinates would be bad for modeling gravitational waves.
    — Steve Nadis, Discover Magazine, 20 Apr. 2023
  • The song’s adventurous orchestration and unsettling harmonics owe much to Dudgeon’s ambition.
    — Mitch Goodwin, Quartzy, 12 July 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'harmonic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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