voiceless

[vois-lis]

adjective

1. having no voice; mute.

2. uttering no words; silent.

3. having an unmusical voice.

4. unspoken; unuttered.

   voiceless sympathy.

5. having no vote or right of choice.

6. Phonetics.,  (of a speech sound)

   1. without voice; unvoiced; surd; aphonic (voiced ).

      “p,” “f,” and “s” are voiceless.

   2. uttered without phonation.

voiceless

/ ˈvɔɪslɪs /

adjective

1. without a voice; mute

2. not articulated

   voiceless misery

3. lacking a musical voice

4. silent

5. without the power or right to express an opinion

6. phonetics articulated without accompanying vibration of the vocal cords

   in English (p) is a voiceless consonant

Other Word Forms

• voicelessly adverb
• voicelessness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of voiceless¹

First recorded in 1525–35; voice + -less

Example Sentences

He smiled broadly and proceeded to give a voiceless answer.

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“He speaks for the voiceless and tried his best to come up with answers to problems that seem unanswerable.”

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“It made me feel voiceless and less than human. I was regularly harassed by police.”

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Which makes it all the more important to have elected leaders like Chu willing to put themselves on the front lines to give a voice to the truly, really voiceless.

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At some point, the massive power imbalance baked into the entire Western liberal-democratic polity, which drives so many people who feel voiceless and disenfranchised into consumerist apathy, fascist fantasy or both, will require radical readjustment.

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