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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.)?

Edwin Ashworth
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Aaron H.
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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 Nov 27 '14 at 06:40
  • I revised the grammar of the subject. It was an egregious oversight on my part. – Aaron H. Dec 03 '14 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 Dec 03 '14 at 19:04
  • Okay, I fixed it up again. How does it look? – Aaron H. Dec 03 '14 at 21:40
  • I keep thinking about pleasant phonoaesthetics here. Is that what you’re looking for? – tchrist Dec 04 '14 at 03:23
  • Aaron, looks better, +1 – James Waldby - jwpat7 Dec 04 '14 at 16:24
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    You might be thinking of mellifluousness: sweetly or smoothly flowing; sweet-sounding? – Mari-Lou A Dec 04 '14 at 16:56
  • Yes! That's the word I was thinking of @Mari-Lou A! Thank you! – Aaron H. Dec 04 '16 at 22:55
  • @Mari-LouA you should make your comment an answer, I would mark it as accepted :) – Aaron H. Mar 21 '19 at 18:33

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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/

Brian Hitchcock
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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]

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

KillingTime
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Ladygoat
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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 Apr 21 '23 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. Mar 16 '24 at 07:28
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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.

livresque
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J. Chesson
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