voice
/vɔɪs
/noun
1The sound produced in a person’s larynx and uttered through the mouth, as speech or song: Meg raised her voice [mass noun]: a worried tone of voice...
- They kept repeating their beautiful song, their voices sounding better and better each time.
- Daniel likes to sing little songs in awful voices to make people laugh.
- It hurt just to open his mouth, and his voice did not sound the same when he did so.
1.1The ability to speak or sing: she’d lost her voice...
- I waved my arms in the air above my head and nearly lost my voice while trying to sing along.
- Staff said she was unable to speak to the press as she had lost her voice, believed to be as a result of a cold.
- I lost my voice for a second but quickly recovered, though still nervous.
Synonyms
power of speech;
powers of articulation
1.2 (usually voices) The supposed utterance of a guiding spirit: they were admitted to hospital after expressing paranoid ideas and hearing voices...
- The sound produced is supposed to be the voices of the ancestral spirits.
- With regard to Counts 3, 5 and 6, the accused indicated that he had acted out as a result of hearing voices or spirits.
- There was an art installation at the Tate in Liverpool once based on the idea that you could record the voices of spirits which float around in empty rooms.
1.3The distinctive tone or style of a literary work or author: she had strained and falsified her literary voice...
- Writers like Labé and Whitney were able to take advantage of the relatively new medium of print to establish their distinctive literary voices.
- We want distinctive literary voices, not ones that can be interchanged at will.
- And it is always a pleasure to listen to her beguiling and distinctive literary voice.
2A particular opinion or attitude expressed: a dissenting voice...
- We anticipated that there would be Americans here that would want their opinions and their voices heard.
- On this occasion, dissenting voices were heard, elaborating reasoned arguments.
- Regarding the impeachment case, Park should listen to the public opinion and voices from GNP members in rebellion.
Synonyms
opinion, view, comment, feeling, wish, desire, vote, input;
one's say
informal one's twopence worth, one's twopenn'orth
2.1An agency by which a point of view is expressed or represented: once the proud voice of middle-class conservatism, the paper had fallen on hard times...
- Set up in 2000 to give a strong voice to consumers, the agency was representing their views and giving them advice and information.
- Since the voices represent a number of government and non-governmental agencies, the public is often confused with inconsistent messages.
- Whatever the Telegraph may tell its readers, such voices represent what large parts of the world think.
Synonyms
mouthpiece, forum, organ, agency, agent, representative, spokesperson, spokesman, spokeswoman, frontman, intermediary, medium, vehicle, instrument, channel, means of expression
2.2 [in singular] The right to express an opinion: the new electoral system gives minority parties a voice...
- Extremists from the Right can only breed if the mainstream do not have a voice from the traditional parties.
- That is why Jim Wallace is trying to find a new voice on civil liberties, with freedom of information legislation and penal reform.
- But they did not see an alternative beyond staying inside Labour and hoping to be allowed a voice in the party.
3 Music The range of pitch or type of tone with which a person sings, such as soprano or tenor.At times, it makes sense to play the soprano and alto voices with the right hand, the tenor and bass with the left hand....
- The medieval church knew no choral polyphony, only the ensemble of three or four soloists, drawn from alto, tenor, and baritone voices.
- She didn't know why most girls liked baritone voices; tenor voices were so much more lyrical.
3.1A vocal part in a composition.They were customarily for solo voice with continuo, but pieces for up to five voices were also composed and obbligato parts sometimes included....
- Pärt has written many a cappella works for several voices or chorus, and this new one, apart from its concision, is typical.
- Listening and experience are indispensable in honing the exceptionally advanced voicing skills chamber music and accompanying require.
3.2A constituent part in a fugue.These seem to be simultaneous streams of attention, like two or three interacting contrapuntal voices in a Bach fugue....
- Bach's Art of Fugue sounds crystal clear, with voices separated in a way that couldn't be achieved by a human performer without computer help.
3.3Each of the notes or sounds able to be produced simultaneously by a musical instrument (especially an electronic one) or a computer.The stored musical sounds and voices are then reproduced in accordance with the received pitch and timing information....
- I can combine tools, images, and multiple voices to create three-dimensional computer worlds.
3.4(In an electronic musical instrument) each of a number of preset or programmable tones.The voices of other programs are digitized and even the environment has its own unique sounds.
4 [mass noun] Phonetics Sound uttered with resonance of the vocal cords (used in the pronunciation of vowels and certain consonants).The two characters are quite similar, and apparently both denote voiced back consonants....
- More generally, voiceless obstruents are more frequent in onset position than voiced obstruents.
- Expiration of air through vibrating vocal cords, used in the production of vowels and voiced consonants.
5 Grammar A form or set of forms of a verb showing the relation of the subject to the action: the passive voice...
- The passive voice is formed within the same paradigm, by be followed by the past participle, but is not a tense.
- In addition, most passive constructions do not exist in Chinese, because verbs often have identical passive and active voices.
- Never use the passive voice in an incitement to action, however vile or reprehensible.
verb [with object]
1Express in words: get teachers to voice their opinions on important subjects...
- Support your art community by voicing your opinion, and prove the visual arts are active and united in Calgary.
- We strongly encourage the Macalester community to voice their opinions on this issue.
- Kerry voiced his words very confidently and held a firm look on his face.
2 (usually as adjective voiced) Phonetics Utter (a speech sound) with resonance of the vocal cords (e.g. b, d, g, v, z).Since each language has its own way of voicing the consonants and the vowels, names of places as pronounced by locals in their native language seldom sound the same to an outsider....
- Words are often pronounced without voicing the H. For example, in the word, everything.
3 Music Regulate the tone quality of (organ pipes).Skills such as shaping of line, pedaling, wrist rotation, voicing and chord playing can be easily incorporated into the piano lesson....
- By indicating a different dynamic for each staff, and by writing un peu en dehors above the middle staff, he left little doubt about the intended voicing hierarchy.
- The student will enjoy exploring the many colors of piano dynamics, voicing and pedaling.
Phrases
give voice to
in voice
with one voice
Derivatives
voicer
- Tuners and ‘voicers’ will go through the organ completely to ensure that each of the nearly 6,000 metal and wood pipes in the organ, and all the different tonal settings, sound as they are should.
- In this way, there is a continuous interchange in between voicers and pipe manufacturers.
- The other voicers stood together in the pews in the middle of the church listening.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French vois, from Latin vox, voc-.
A word derived from Latin vox ‘voice’ and is related to vocabulary (mid 16th century), vocal (Middle English), vocation (Late Middle English), and vociferous (early 17th century), while the verb vocare ‘to call’ appears in convoke (late 16th century) ‘call together’; equivocate (Late Middle English) literally ‘call by the same name’; evoke (early 17th century) ‘call out’; invoke (Late Middle English) ‘call upon’; provoke (Late Middle English) ‘call forth’; revoke (Late Middle English) ‘call back’; and vouch (Middle English) and voucher (early 16th century). Vowel (Middle English) is from Old French vouel, from Latin vocalis (littera) ‘vocal (letter)’. The Latin root survives in vox pop, ‘an informal survey of people's opinion’, which is short for Latin vox populi or ‘voice of the people’. When people refer to an ignored advocate of reform as a voice in the wilderness they are echoing the words of John the Baptist proclaiming the coming of the Messiah: ‘I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.’