Word of the day: The Latin roots of "dissonant" trace back to "dis-" and "sonare," literally meaning sounds that fall apart from one another. Composers have long used dissonant chords deliberately, creating tension before resolving it into harmony. Beyond music, the term extends into everyday language to describe clashing opinions, and forms the basis of "cognitive dissonance," a widely referenced concept in psychology describing the discomfort of holding contradictory beliefs.
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