I. con ‧ so ‧ nant 1 /ˈkɒnsənənt $ ˈkɑːn-/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . a speech sound made by partly or completely stopping the flow of air through your mouth ⇨ vowel
2 . a letter that represents a consonant sound. The letters ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘i’, ‘o’, ‘u’, and sometimes ‘y’ represent vowels, and all the other letters are consonants.
II. consonant 2 BrE AmE adjective
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Language: Old French ; Origin: Latin , present participle of consonare 'to sound together, agree' , from com- ( ⇨ COM- ) + sonare 'to sound' ]
1 . be consonant with something formal to match or exist well with something else:
This policy is scarcely consonant with the government’s declared aims.
2 . technical relating to a combination of musical notes that sounds pleasant OPP dissonant
—consonance noun [uncountable]