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.
The sound stage felt bludgeoned into submission throughout, as the intense distortion of bass, percussion and guitars made the instrument separation within the mix almost inaudible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 16, 2026
They tricked image recognition systems into mistaking photographs of cats for guacamole, and found new ways of embedding inaudible Alexa commands into five-second snippets of classical music.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
These high-frequency waves are invisible and inaudible to humans.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 20, 2025
The one negative to the performance I caught is that his work on the Hammond B3 was completely inaudible in the mix from your critic’s location, stage left and halfway up the seating bowl.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2025
It seems to call for a big, dramatic speech, but all I get out is one almost inaudible sentence.
From "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions 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.
