2 entries under this word
a. [Lat. consonans, p. pr. of consonare, to sound at the same time, from con and sonare, to sound, It. consonante, Fr. consonnant.] 1. Having agreement; congruous; consistent; according; — followed by with or to. They all plead Scripture for what they say; and each one pretends that his opinion . . . is consonant to the words there used. Bp. Beveridge. 2. (Mus.) Harmonizing together; accordant; as, consonant tones, consonant chords.
n. An articulate sound which in utterance is usually combined and sounded with an open sound called a vowel; a member of the spoken alphabet other than a vowel: hence, also, a letter or character representing such a sound.
☞ Consonants are divided into various classes, as mutes, spirants, sibilants, nasals, semi-vowels, &c. They are all of them sounds uttered through a closer position of the organs than are the vowels proper, although the most open of them, as the semi-vowels and nasals, are capable of being used as if vowels, and forming syllables with other, closer consonants, as in the English feeble (-bl), taken (-kn). All the consonants excepting the mutes may be indefinitely prolonged in utterance without the help of a vowel, and even the mutes may be produced with an aspirate instead of a vocal explosion. Vowels and consonants may be regarded as the two poles in the scale of sounds produced by gradual approximation of the organs of speech from the most open to the closest positions, the vowel being more open, the consonant closer; but there is a territory between them where the sounds produced partake of the qualities of both.