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vox humana

American  
[voks hyoo-mey-nuh, -mah-, -man-uh] / ˈvɒks hjuˈmeɪ nə, -ˈmɑ-, -ˈmæn ə /

noun

  1. a pipe-organ stop designed to produce tones resembling those of the human voice.


vox humana British  
/ hjuːˈmɑːnə /

noun

  1. a reed stop on an organ supposedly imitative of the human voice

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of vox humana

First recorded in 1720–30, vox humana is from Latin vōx humāna “human voice”

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.

See Examples For:

Among the hundreds of stops that organists use to imitate different instruments, there is one labeled vox humana or “human voice.”

From New York Times Jan. 20, 2016

By pulling and pushing little buttons, modern organists can produce tremulous vox humana, whooshing swell-effects, can make their gigantic instruments do everything but prance up & down the aisles.

From Time Magazine Archive

The exhibition comes to us with the vox humana stop full out.

From Time Magazine Archive

The vox humana stopped, not gradually, but abruptly, as if the heart had broken and its life had gone out in the one supreme effort.

From A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others by Smith, Francis Hopkinson

In the same passage his note immediately changes to the soft vox humana of—             "We are such stuff   As dreams are made on, and our little life   Is rounded with a sleep."

From Halleck's New English Literature by Halleck, Reuben Post

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