Is “enormous sound” wrong?

Enormous is used almost exclusively for things of large physical size. You can have an enormous buffet, an enormous elephant, an enormous pile of cash, an enormous lifted truck, but not an enormous garlic aroma, an enormous thought, or an enormous time of day. A sound has *no* physical size. Therefore it can’t be enormous.

The first part is valid, but although it's true that "enormous sound" sounds a little odd, enormous is used for tons of things that aren't actual physical objects, and not just in lay speech. An enormous opportunity, enormous possibilities, enormous potential, an enormous advantage, someone is under enormous pressure, has an enormous amount of guilt, something is an enormous relief, etc.

As a musician who has played in many different kinds of ensembles, I’ve heard the phrase “enormous sound” used often. Ex. “Wow! The trombones have an enormous sound!” to mean that they are very loud and robust sounding. While I wouldn’t use the phrase to describe something that’s just “loud”. I would use it to refer to the overall presence and impact of a sound.

"Enormous sound" doesn't sound right, but "enormous bang" does sound right. So, I don't think it's that simple.

Their comment is correct, at least for American English

is it even right in your own language? i can't imagine size-related adjectives being used with sound in my language either.

OK- so I agree enormous sound is not technically correct. So as far as any academic work, think of it as incorrect so you don't get marked down. It also sounds a tiny bit awkward as others have said. But, I think someone could use this slight awkwardness to make the phrase stand out or to create emphasis, and in some contexts it might work well. So I wouldn't think of it as something you would never see or hear or something you should correct others on, outside of a classroom.

Kind of two minds about this. As others have said, sound doesn’t have physical properties therefore "enormous sound" can’t be correct. But it sounds natural to me. Sound is often described metaphorically. "When the band started, we were hit by a wall of sound." "Waves of music broke over the audience and the crowd went crazy." The problem with language learners using metaphor is that it’s so easy to get the imagery wrong.

No, you can say “enormous sound”. Enormous is used in all kinds of figurative ways besides meaning the literal size of something. I’d say you’re more likely to hear it as a predicate adjective though. Hearing someone say, “that sound was enormous!” sounds a little more natural to me than saying, “that was an enormous sound!” Most native speakers are probably going to use a different adjective to describe a loud or impactful sound, but it’s not at all out of the realm of normal to call it “enormous”.

It sounds wrong/uncommon to use it like that but it's in that grey area where you could use it to be semi-poetic about what you're talking about. i.e. you could say "the shot from his rifle let out an enormous bang" in the same way you might say "the Grinch found the prospect of stealing everyone's presents quite delicious". The word "delicious" usually only applies to food but using it conveys that the Grinch really wants to pursue the idea in the same poetic sense as calling a sound enormous, which doesn't have a size and therefore can't actually be enormous

"Enormous sound" would most likely appear in a poetic sense. It could be telling a story in which the word enormous is used quite a bit, so it goes on to describe a sound as well: "The enormous giant slammed his enormous door making an enormous sound that shook his enormous house," would be one example of this. This is probably something that would appear in a child's story when fewer words are used, and complicated word that doesn't appear as much to a child might appear more to help teach that word.

It’s not the best adjective to use, but most people wouldn’t give you a weird look if you said it

Just as a note, you don’t “say a sound”; you “make a sound”. So you can’t say a tremendous sound either, but you can make one. (There may be some niche instances where this works, but it would be highly context dependent). On its own, don’t use “say” with “sound”; use “make”. But to answer the question, you don’t really use “enormous” for things that don’t have physical properties, so “enormous sound” sounds very odd and unusual.

Not grammatically, no. But it would be strange to some to hear Personally I’d just use extremely loud. Because quantifying the size rather than the volume to mean the volume is a little weird to me. But others will do it.

someone has discovered alberto capiello

I would say people usually wouldn’t say either, people usually say loud sound but you could say enormous word, so i think they kind of said it wrong because you can’t say a sound you make a sound.

“Enormous sound” is absolutely something musicians say.

You might say it in some poetic or metaphoric context, but it sounds marked, not standard.

If I read “enormous sound” I would pause, think “huh, cool turn of phrase”, but not think it was incorrect, because it isn’t.

you absolutely can say enormous sound, but it doesn't mean a very loud sound. in the music industry, it would mean a very wide and strong sound, usually one with a lot of reverb

i agree with the poster for ordinary conversation, but i can also completely see it in specific contexts like music. i've said it about people's voices and about certain types of sound. it's not just that they're loud, it's the way that they take up space.

Idk why people are making this so complicated. No, nobody would say “enormous sound” when describing something loud.

No, it's right. It means the same thing as a big sound. A big sound is usually used to describe a sound that takes up a wide amount of the mix.

I feel like I would only use “enormous sound” if a sound was so loud and epic and surprising that it transcended all the sounds that came before it