voice
noun
the distinctive quality or pitch or condition of a person''s speech
- “A shrill voice sounded behind us”
a sound suggestive of a vocal utterance
- “the noisy voice of the waterfall”
- “the incessant voices of the artillery”
something suggestive of speech in being a medium of expression
- “the wee small voice of conscience”
- “the voice of experience”
- “he said his voices told him to do it”
(linguistics) the grammatical relation (active or passive) of the grammatical subject of a verb to the action that the verb denotes
the melody carried by a particular voice or instrument in polyphonic music
- “he tried to sing the tenor part”
verb
Origin
From Middle English voice, voys, vois, borrowed from Anglo-Norman voiz, voys, voice, Old French vois, voiz (Modern French voix), from Latin vōcem, accusative form of vōx (“voice”). Cognate with Sanskrit वाच् (vāc), Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps), Persian آواز (âvâz). Displaced native Middle English steven (“voice”) (from Old English stefn (see steven)), Old English hlēoþor, Old English woþ, and Old English reord. Compare advocate, advowson, avouch, convoke, vocal, vouch, vowel. Doublet of vox.
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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.