inaudible
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of inaudible
Explanation
Inaudible is another way of saying "hushed" or "silent." If you thought the bad words you muttered under your breath were inaudible, perhaps you should've turned off that microphone in front of you! In Latin, audire means “to hear,” so it makes sense, then, that inaudible means “imperceptible by the ear,” since in- means “not.” You should strive to speak in a near-inaudible whisper if you need to talk to your seatmate at the opera, but in normal, everyday conversation, you won’t get your point across unless you talk at a louder volume. Synonyms for inaudible range from faint and muffled to uncommunicative and voiceless.
Vocabulary lists containing inaudible
Common Senses: Aud ("Hear")
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"The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs
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The Diary of Anne Frank
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
To Amis, the study of Old English at Oxford “carried the redoubted impediment of having Tolkien, incoherent and often inaudible, lecturing on it.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2026
These high-frequency waves are invisible and inaudible to humans.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2025
The clip remains inaudible until the very end, when audio of her laughing and saying “oh boy” interrupts the silence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2025
Some higher pitched sounds would be inaudible entirely.
From Salon ● Jun. 3, 2025
Hermione screamed again from overhead, and they could hear Bellatrix screaming too, but her words were inaudible, for Ron shouted again, “HERMIONE! HERMIONE!”
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
