audities

Audities is a term used in some discussions of auditory perception to denote the perceptual attributes of sound—the subjective qualities listeners experience when hearing. Not widely recognized in standard dictionaries, audities appears in theoretical or interdisciplinary texts concerned with how sound is perceived, organized, and valued. Etymology: derived from the Latin root aud- meaning "to hear" with the abstract noun suffix -ity, mirroring other sensory terms such as 'audibility' or 'visual qualia'.

Definition and scope: Audities refer to the experiential content of hearing, rather than to the physical properties of sound. They encompass qualities such as timbre, pitch salience, loudness, texture, spatial impression, and emotional valence. In practice, the concept helps distinguish between objective measures (frequency, amplitude, spectral content) and subjective experience (how a listener perceives and interprets those cues). Usage and examples: In cognitive science and musicology, discussions of audities illustrate how sounds with similar acoustics can yield different perceptual impressions, or how context alters listening. For instance, the same note may carry different audities when played solo versus within an ensemble; or a violin and a flute can share harmonic content while producing distinct audities.

Relationship to other concepts: Audities are related to, but distinct from, auditory qualia, timbre, and perceptual attributes. See also: auditory perception, timbre, qualia. Criticism: The term remains rare and sometimes controversial due to potential ambiguity; many scholars prefer more established terminology such as "perceptual qualities" or "auditory experience."