What does redounding mean?
Redounding is a literary verb and participial adjective meaning to sound again, echo, or reverberate. It is especially common in constructions such as “redounding with thunder,” where a place seems filled with a repeated, swelling, or resonant sound. The word may also be used figuratively for a reputation, achievement, or report that is heard widely or repeatedly: “his praise redounded throughout the kingdom.” Its base verb is “redound,” with the standard past form “redounded.” The vocabulary is formal and poetic rather than conversational, but it gives familiar ideas greater resonance. “Redounding” is especially useful when “echo” would sound too ordinary or when a sound is meant to seem powerful, expansive, and unforgettable. In older usage, the word could also indicate that someone had become famous or that an action had brought them honour, although this sense is now much less common than its literal and broadly figurative uses.
To sound again, echo, or reverberate; figuratively, to be heard widely or repeatedly.
"The bells redounded across the empty square."
Formal and literary. The present participle “redounding” is more common than the finite forms in contemporary writing.
Echoing, reverberating, or resonant.
"The redounding thunder shook the windows."
A literary participial adjective, especially common in the phrase “redounding with.”
Redounding makes a sound seem to return, swell, and fill the space around it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does redounding come from?
The word comes through Middle English from an Old French form meaning “to echo,” ultimately derived from Latin redundare, “to overflow” or “surge back.” Latin redundare was formed with re-, an intensive or repeated-action prefix, and undare, “to wave,” from the root unda, “wave.” This root also underlies English words such as redundant, undulate, and undulation; the idea of a sound returning developed from the older metaphor of a wave or flood surging back.
Related word forms
How redounding is actually used
Redounding is literary and formal rather than everyday. Its present-participle form is especially common in the pattern “redounding with,” while the older figurative sense involving fame or widespread reputation is now relatively uncommon.
Easily confused with redounding
Redounding means sounding again or reverberating, whereas rebounding means bouncing back after striking a surface.