Basic+ Word of the Day: sound

sound (noun, verb) past tense: sounded

"I hate that sound!"

A sound is something that we can hear.

• I love the sound of the sea.

If something sounds like another thing, it means that it makes a noise similar to that thing. We sometimes use sound like when we’re not sure what is making the sound. Or we can use it when two sounds are similar, but we know that they aren’t the same thing.

• That sounds like the telephone.
• She sounded exactly like my sister.

We can also use sound or sound like to give our opinion of something that we heard. For example, if someone tells you about their job, and you think that it is interesting, you can say, “Your job sounds very interesting.”

• It sounds like it was a fun holiday!

Common uses

When someone asks us to do something with them, and we want to say that we like their idea, we often say, “That sounds good.” For example: “Do you want to go see a movie at the weekend?” “Yes, that sounds good!”

In pop culture

Do you know the movie The Sound of Music? It’s about a woman in Austria who becomes the nanny for seven children. Their father is very strict, but she teaches him to be kinder. In this video from the movie, the children are going to bed and they sing a song. In their song, they say lots of words that mean ‘goodbye.’ Listen for these: “so long,” “farewell,” “auf Wiedersehen” (German for ‘goodbye’) “adieu” (French for ‘goodbye’).

There are other meanings of sound.