Echo

Pronunciation

• enPR: Ä•'kō, IPA: /ˈɛkəʊ/
• Rhymes: -É›kəʊ

Alternative forms

• echoe obsolete
• eccho obsolete

Origin

From Middle English ecco, ekko, from Medieval Latin ecco, from Latin echo, from Ancient Greek ἠχώ, from ἠχή ("sound").

Full definition of echo

Noun

1. A reflected sound that is heard again by its initial observer.
• ShakespeareThe babbling echo mocks the hounds.
• Alexander PopeThe woods shall answer, and the echo ring.
• Wodehouse Offing|X|“Then what is your little trouble?” “My little trouble!” I felt that this sort of thing must be stopped at its source. It was only ten minutes to dressing-for-dinner time, and we could go on along these lines for hours. “Listen, old crumpet,” I said patiently. “Make up your mind whether you are my old friend Reginald Herring or an echo in the Swiss mountains. If you're simply going to repeat every word I say –”
• 2013, William E. Conner, An Acoustic Arms Race, Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
2. (figurative) Sympathetic recognition; response; answer.
• FullerFame is the echo of actions, resounding them.
• Robert Louis StevensonMany kind, and sincere speeches found an echo in his heart.
3. (computing) The displaying on the command line of the command that has just been executed.
4. The letter E in the ICAO spelling alphabet.

Derived terms

Verb

1. (of a sound or sound waves, intransitive) To reflect off of a surface and return.
2. (by extension, transitive) To repeat back precisely what another has just said: to copy in the imitation of a natural echo.
• John DrydenThose peals are echoed by the Trojan throng.
• KebleThe wondrous sound
  Is echoed on forever.
3. (by extension, transitive) To repeat (another's speech, opinion, etc.).
• 2013, Sarah Glaz, Ode to Prime Numbers, Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.
4. Sid echoed his father's point of view.

Synonyms

Anagrams

• oche