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What word describes the experience of pleasure at the sound of a word? This refers to the enjoyment of words being pronounced, rather than to the euphony, or pleasing sound, of a word.

I know that such a word exists describing this experience of pleasure, but I cannot remember it. I've tried numerous sources, e.g. google.com, dictionary.com, but cannot find the word again. Can you think of the word, or tell me where it might be found (short of reading through every entry in the O.E.D.)?

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    Please edit your post so that its body contains an entire question, phrased in complete English sentences with subjects and verbs. As it stands, the post has an unmeaningful phrase (“the sound word”) in the title, and some unclear sentence fragments (“Not the pleasing sound of a word” and “But the enjoyment of that word being pronounced”) in the body. You are more likely to get a good answer if you ask a question that's easily understood.
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Commented Nov 27, 2014 at 6:40
  • I revised the grammar of the subject. It was an egregious oversight on my part.
    – Aaron H.
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 18:32
  • Aaron, the title looks much better, so I retracted my downvote and closevote. However, as the post still begins with a sentence fragment instead of a sentence, and doesn't have a question clearly or explicitly stated in the body, I'm not upvoting it yet.
    – James Waldby - jwpat7
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 19:04
  • Okay, I fixed it up again. How does it look?
    – Aaron H.
    Commented Dec 3, 2014 at 21:40
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    You might be thinking of mellifluousness: sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding?
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Dec 4, 2014 at 16:56

4 Answers 4

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I don't know the word.... but there is an entire blog devoted to musings about various words and what their sounds evoke, whether related to their actual meaning or not. If you like turning over in your mind the impressions that words make on your ears (and mouth), try Sesquiotica.

http://sesquiotic.wordpress.com/author/sesquiotic/

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  • A lovely blog, I'll be bookmarking this one.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Dec 4, 2014 at 17:04
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I'm not certain of any one specific word. But auditory-tactile synesthesia is where certain sounds can induce sensations in parts of the body, including those of pleasure; although perhaps this is more of a biological response.

The word synaesthesia is quite close too:

the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body.

[Wikipedia, Oxford Online Dictionary]

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One word that describes taking pleasure in the sound of words is euphonious; euphony

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    Your answer could be improved with additional supporting information. Please edit to add further details, such as citations or documentation, so that others can confirm that your answer is correct. You can find more information on how to write good answers in the help center.
    – Community Bot
    Commented Apr 21, 2023 at 14:44
  • @Mari-Lou A already answered this, but hasn't made it a proper response, so all I can do is upvote her comment. That's a very nice word too. It was: mellifluousness
    – Aaron H.
    Commented Mar 16 at 7:28
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You also might be thinking of ASMR.

ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response. Autonomous means that the feeling is in your body, sensory means that your senses perceive the feeling, meridian refers to the energy of the feeling in your body, and response indicates that the feeling is a response to stimuli.

The many ASMR videos on the internet often combine visual and auditory stimuli, but there are many that also focus on a specific person’s voice, or the way someone pronounces certain words.

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