sound bite

noun

1. a brief, striking remark or statement excerpted from an audiotape or videotape for insertion in a broadcast news story.

sound bite

noun

1. a short pithy sentence or phrase extracted from a longer speech for use on radio or television

Word History and Origins

Origin of sound bite¹

First recorded in 1985–90

Idioms and Phrases

A short, striking, quotable statement well suited to a television news program. For example, He's extremely good at sound bites, but a really substantive speech is beyond him. This slangy expression, first recorded in 1980, originated in political campaigns in which candidates tried to get across a particular message or get publicity by having it picked up in newscasts.

Example Sentences

North pointed to the adage that “it takes a minute to say a sound bite, but an hour to explain why it is false.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Twenty-three years of a smug, smarmy host, and a bunch of sportswriters desperate for sound bites and attention.

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The experience is the opposite of what one feels by the image glut and sound bites of modern life, the psychologically destabilizing ether of digital distractions that can oppress the soul.

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One Tasmanian doctor tells the BBC it is just a "good election sound bite".

Read more on BBC

“It was a last-minute pointed request meant to not generate a meeting, and then use it as a media sound bite,” Hamby said.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• blurb 
• clip 
• excerpt 
• one-liner 
• quotation 
• slogan 
• snippet