clarion

Meanings

1. A medieval brass instrument chiefly used as a battle signal; related to the trumpet, it had a narrow, straight pipe and a high-pitched, piercing sound.
2. The sound of a clarion (sense 1), or any sound resembling the loud, high-pitched note of a clarion.
3. An organ stop consisting of pipes with reeds giving a high-pitched note like that of a clarion (sense 1).
4. The middle register of the clarinet.
5. A charge thought to represent a type of wind instrument, a keyboard instrument like a spinet, or perhaps a rest used by a knight to support a lance during jousting.

1. Of a sound, a voice, a message, etc.: brilliantly clear.

1. To announce or herald (something) using a clarion (noun sense 1).
2. To announce or herald (something) clearly, especially so as to stir or unite people.
3. Of a thing: to cause (a place) to echo with a sound like that of a clarion.
4. To sound a clarion; also, to make a high-pitched, piercing sound like that of a clarion.

1. An unincorporated community in Bureau County, Illinois, United States.
2. A city, the county seat of Wright County, Iowa, United States.
3. A borough, the county seat of Clarion County, Pennsylvania, United States.
4. A ghost town in Sanpete County, Utah, United States.
5. A river in Pennsylvania, a tributary of the Allegheny River.

Etymology

The noun is derived from Middle English clarion, clarioun (“trumpet with a narrow tube and a shrill sound, clarion; clarion player”) [and other forms], from Old French claron, clarïon (“clarion”) [and other forms], from Medieval Latin clāriōn, clario, clārōn (“clarion; trumpet”), from Latin clārus (“audible; clear, distinct, loud; (visually) bright, clear”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kelh₁- (“to call, summon; to cry”). The adjective is from an attributive use of the noun.

Translations