loud
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: enpr: loud
ipa: /laʊd/
rhymes: -aʊd
Forms: form: louder
form: loudest
form: lowd
Etymology: From Middle English loude, loud, lud, from Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlūd, from Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz, *hlūþaz (“heard”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewtos (“heard, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). More at listen.
Cognates
Akin to Scots loud, lowd (“loud”), Swedish ljud, West Frisian lûd (“loud”), Dutch luid (“loud”), Low German lud (“loud”), German laut (“loud”), Irish clú (“repute”), Welsh clywed (“heard”), clod (“praise”), Latin laudare (“praise”), Tocharian A/B klots/klautso 'ear', klyostär 'heard', Ancient Greek κλυτός (klutós, “famous”), Albanian quaj (“to name, call”), shquar (“famous, notorious”), Old Armenian լու (lu, “the act of hearing”), Old Church Slavonic слава (slava, “glory”), слово (slovo, “word”), Sanskrit श्रव (śráva, “glory”).
Senses: examples: text: Turn that music down; it's too loud.
text: What was that? It sounded like a really loud sneeze.
text: Mr. Cooke at once began a tirade against the residents of Asquith for permitting a sandy and generally disgraceful condition of the roads. So roundly did he vituperate the inn management in particular, and with such a loud flow of words, that I trembled lest he should be heard on the veranda.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: Of great intensity.
raw_tags: of a sound
examples: text: a loud party that went on all night
text: She is loud and stubborn.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs vii:11:
qualifier: thing; event; thing; event
glosses: Noisy.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: Some of the loudest blubberers are developers who, having made enormous profits as a result of local, state, and federal subsidies, complain that government doesn't do enough for them.
ref: 1988 September 12, Ben Joravsky, “Property-tax assessments rise; north siders are revolting”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 24 Oct 2020:
qualifier: event
glosses: Not subtle or reserved, brash.
raw_tags: of a person
examples: text: a loud style of dress; loud colors
text: In comparison with the loud Portrait of E.C. Ricart (ill. p. 13) two years earlier, Miró has captured a soft, hushed atmosphere here.
ref: 2006, Janis Mink, Joan Miró, →ISBN, page 22:
qualifier: decorations
glosses: Having unpleasantly and tastelessly contrasting colours or patterns; gaudy.
raw_tags: of clothing
glosses: High-quality; premium; (by extension) having a strong or pungent odour indicating good quality.
raw_tags: of marijuana
Synonyms: sense: of clothing, etc
word: garish
sense: of clothing, etc
word: gaudy
word: ample
word: blaring
word: forceful
word: forte
word: fortissimo
word: noisy
word: powerful
word: sonorous
word: stentorian
word: strident
word: strong
word: voluminous
Hypernyms: word: volume
Hyponyms: word: blistering
word: booming
word: brash
word: cacophonous
word: clamorous
word: crashing
word: deafening
word: explosive
word: harsh
word: roaring
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: aloud
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: louden
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudhailer
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudish
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudly
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudmouth
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudmouthed
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudness
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudsome
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: loudspeaker
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: megaloud
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: overloud
sense: Terms derived from loud (adjective)
word: radioloud