acoustics

noun

uh-KOO-stiks/əˈkuː.stɪks/

3 meanings of acoustics

1
noununcountable
The qualities of a space, such as a room or hall, that affect how sound carries within it.
The hall's acoustics are so good that a whisper on stage carries to the back row.
After the renovation, the acoustics in the lecture room improved dramatically.
2
noununcountable
The branch of physics that studies sound and how it behaves.
Her degree in acoustics led to a job designing quieter jet engines.
In acoustics, an echo is treated as a sound wave reflected back toward the listener.
Note
The name of the science ends in -s but takes a singular verb, as physics and mathematics do: acoustics is a branch of physics. John Herschel, in his Preliminary Discourse on the Study of Natural Philosophy, calls it a very considerable branch, cultivated from the earliest ages. The verb is the quickest way to tell it from a room's sound qualities, which usually takes a plural: the acoustics are superb.
3
noun
Plural of acoustic.
Note
Two singular nouns stand behind this plural. One, acoustic, means the sound properties of a room or building, so the acoustics of two halls reads the same whether taken as this plural or as a space's sound qualities. The other names a medicine or remedy meant to help a person hear; here acoustics simply means more than one such remedy.

acoustic, noun: The properties of a room or building that determine how sound travels through it. Full entry

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Formed from acoustic + the suffix -s.