echo

The word “echo” means of a sound, to bounce off a surface and be heard again; to reverberate. In plain terms, a sound bouncing back, or figuratively, an idea or feeling being repeated or reflected elsewhere.

“Echo” is pronounced EHK-oh (/ˈɛk.oʊ/ in IPA).

Here is “echo” used in a sentence: “Her footsteps echoed down the empty corridor.”

Depending on how it is used, “echo” can be a verb and a noun.

The word “echo” comes from Latin. From Greek ēkhṓ, "sound" or "echo," via Latin and Old French — in Greek myth, Echo was a nymph condemned by Hera to only repeat the last words spoken to her.

“Echo” is a fairly common word in modern English, usually learned at around the C2 level.

“Echo” has 3 distinct senses listed in this dictionary. The most common is: of a sound, to bounce off a surface and be heard again; to reverberate.

The standard plural is echoes, with -es. The same spelling appears in the verb form — "the canyon echoes" — while the past tense is echoed and the present participle is echoing.

An echo is a sound that bounces off a surface and is heard again as a distinct repetition. Reverberation is the overlapping persistence of many reflections, heard as a prolonged tail of sound rather than a separate repeat. You hear an echo across a canyon and reverberation inside a large hall.

An echo chamber is an environment — often a social media feed or a like-minded group — in which people mainly hear opinions that repeat and reinforce their own. The metaphor comes from a space where sounds are reflected back, so the same ideas keep bouncing around unchallenged.