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/jˈunəsən/ /jˈunɪsən/ Listen

noun

Unison n.

Harmony; agreement; concord; union.

(Mus.) Identity in pitch; coincidence of sounds proceeding from an equality in the number of vibrations made in a given time by two or more sonorous bodies. Parts played or sung in octaves are also said to be in unison, or in octaves. Note: If two cords of the same substance have equal length, thickness, and tension, they are said to be in unison, and their sounds will be in unison. Sounds of very different qualities and force may be in unison, as the sound of a bell may be in unison with a sound of a flute. Unison, then, consists in identity of pitch alone, irrespective of quality of sound, or timbre, whether of instruments or of human voices. A piece or passage is said to be sung or played in unison when all the voices or instruments perform the same part, in which sense unison is contradistinguished from harmony.

A single, unvaried. (R.)

In unison, in agreement; agreeing in tone; in concord.

adjective

Unison adj.

Sounding alone. (Obs.) "(sounds) intermixed with voice, Choral or unison."

(Mus.) Sounded alike in pitch; unisonant; unisonous; as, unison passages, in which two or more parts unite in coincident sound.

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Etymology of 'Unison'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Unison" Quotes from Famous Books

... Lady Nelson's nerves could not bear the constant presence of his lordship's young nephews and nieces; while his lordship, fond of virtue in every shape, never felt happier than when surrounded by the amiable children of his brother and sisters. Here was another want of unison in sentiment; and, consequently, a considerable source of discord. It will be sufficient, to hint a few such unhappy incongruities of disposition, to account for that extreme deficiency of harmony between the parties which afterwards led to a separation by mutual consent. The present Earl and Countess ...

— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. II (of 2) • James Harrison

... the fate of all men, they came to say a little more than "yes" and "no." Once, on the subject of education, which Marius wished to have free and obligatory, multiplied under all forms lavished on every one, like the air and the sun in a word, respirable for the entire population, they were in unison, and they almost conversed. M. Fauchelevent talked well, and even with a certain loftiness of language—still he lacked something indescribable. M. Fauchelevent possessed something less and also something more, than a man ...

— Les Miserables - Complete in Five Volumes • Victor Hugo

... to circulate. Our colonies, I believe, are not destined to drop from us like ripe fruit; our dependencies will not fall to other masters. The nation sooner or later will wake to its imperial mission. The hearts of Englishmen beyond the seas will beat in unison with ours. And the federation I foresee is not the federation of Mankind, but that of the British race ...

— A Modern Symposium • G. Lowes Dickinson

... you go, all men are comrades; all burn with one and the same fire; all are merry; all are good. Without words they all understand one another; and no one wants to hinder or insult the other. No one feels the need of it. All live in unison, but each heart sings its own song. And the songs flow like brooks into one stream, swelling into a huge river of bright joys, rolling free and wide down its course. And when you think that this will be—that it cannot help being if we so wish it—then ...

— Mother • Maxim Gorky

... the angelic idea of man, the angels give no thought to what a man does with his body, but only to the will from which the body acts. This they call the man himself, and the understanding they call the man so far as it acts in unison with the will.{1} ...

— Heaven and its Wonders and Hell • Emanuel Swedenborg

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