LOUDNESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does loudness mean? 

• LOUDNESS (noun)
  The noun LOUDNESS has 2 senses:

1. the magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction)

2. tasteless showiness

  Familiarity information: LOUDNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOUDNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The magnitude of sound (usually in a specified direction)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

intensity; loudness; volume

Context example:

the kids played their music at full volume

Hypernyms ("loudness" is a kind of...):

sound property (an attribute of sound)

Attribute:

loud (characterized by or producing sound of great volume or intensity)

soft ((of sound) relatively low in volume)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "loudness"):

crescendo ((music) a gradual increase in loudness)

Antonym:

softness (a sound property that is free from loudness or stridency)

Derivation:

loud (characterized by or producing sound of great volume or intensity)

loud ((used chiefly as a direction or description in music) loud; with force)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Tasteless showiness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

brashness; flashiness; garishness; gaudiness; glitz; loudness; meretriciousness; tawdriness

Hypernyms ("loudness" is a kind of...):

tastelessness (inelegance indicated by a lack of good taste)

Derivation:

loud (tastelessly showy)

 Context examples 

It advanced from behind the mountains of Jura, and the thunder burst at once with frightful loudness from various quarters of the heavens.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Tones vary in frequency and loudness.

(Humans Can Identify More Than 1 Trillion Smells, NIH, US)

There had remained only a general impression of roughness and loudness; and now he scarcely ever noticed her, but to make her the object of a coarse joke.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

This work has shown that sound processing in the auditory cortex happens in stages, beginning with the analysis of low-level features, such as loudness and pitch.

(Understanding how the brain makes sense of sound, National Science Foundation)

The older a person grows, Harriet, the more important it is that their manners should not be bad; the more glaring and disgusting any loudness, or coarseness, or awkwardness becomes.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)