vocal fry

[voh-kuhl frahy]

noun

1. a voice quality characterized by a low pitch and raspy sound and produced by a slow fluttering of the vocal cords: He wrote to the radio show to complain about the young woman’s vocal fry.

   Both men and women speak with vocal fry.

   He wrote to the radio show to complain about the young woman’s vocal fry.

Word History and Origins

Origin of vocal fry¹

First recorded in 1960–65; vocal ( def. ) + fry ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

She said the condition, called Reinke's edema, makes touring challenging because it causes the "ultimate vocal fry".

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Her stream-of-consciousness podcast monologues continue to boost her star, frequently going viral on Instagram and TikTok for their vocal fry realness.

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To play the famously enigmatic Malkmus, Kerry goes to great and often hilariously absurd lengths to pin the man down, including a couple of visits to the Whitney Museum, where Malkmus once worked as a security guard, and on a quest to take a photograph of the singer’s tongue to better capture the mechanics of his “vocal fry.”

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Singing a catchy verse about putting her hand on a stove, in her signature autotuned vocal fry, Shake was on the path to rap stardom.

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The moment I could feel that tide shifting was probably the Great Vocal Fry Wars of 2013.

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