The ``propagating wave'' analysis of an ultrasonic resonator is extended to include some effects of nonparallelism, guided wave phenomena, and electrical loading. Each of these effects contributes an ``inhomogeneous'' broadening to the continuous wave frequency domain response and an ``inhomogeneous'' damping to the time domain decay. Experimental verification for ultrasound propagating in both thin and bulk solid specimens is obtained by utilizing the sampled‐continuous wave ultrasonic spectrometer. Quantitative evaluation of interference effects among harmonic and inharmonic responses is achieved using the spectrometer in the time domain mode of observation.