by Liz Walter
At the beginning of the month I wrote about words and phrases connected with being quiet. In this post, I’ll be looking at the opposite: how to talk about noise.
First, a word about the common adjectives loud and noisy. Although loud noises can of course be annoying, the word ‘loud’ is itself neutral. ‘Noisy’ on the other hand, almost always implies that a sound is unreasonable or annoying:
We were told to listen for three loud blasts of the horn.
The carriage was full of noisy children.
There are several nouns for noisy situations, all of which have negative connotations. Din and racket are slightly informal words for annoying loud noises that continue for a long time. More formally, a loud jumble of (usually unpleasant) sounds is sometimes described as a cacophony.
Stop making such a din!
The police helicopter was making a terrible racket.
We were greeted by a cacophony of screeching parrots.
We sometimes call the noise of many people talking or shouting at once a clamour (UK) / clamor (US). Something that is thunderous is very loud and continues for a long time. It is often used to describe applause:
We woke to the clamour of protestors in the street outside.
Her speech received thunderous applause.
We sat inside, listening to the thunderous rain.
Very loud noises can be described as ear-splitting or deafening. An ear-piercing sound is also very loud and usually high-pitched. If you have a sound such as music at the loudest possible level, we say it is on (at) full blast:
Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting explosion.
There was a deafening roar of gunfire.
An ear-piercing scream rang out.
They had the TV on full blast all night.
A loud, unpleasant voice may be described as strident, while a loud, unpleasant, high-pitched voice is shrill. A booming voice is loud and deep:
He demanded food in a strident voice.
She shouted at him in shrill tones.
His booming laugh rang out.
There are several verbs for speaking or shouting loudly. Screech means to shout in an unpleasant, high-pitched way, while roar means to make a deep, loud sound like a lion. Howl means to shout or cry out loudly. It is often used in contexts of anger or pain. We also say that people howl/roar with laughter:
I screeched at him to move quickly.
He roared abuse at us.
His jokes made us howl with laughter.
Finally, if we are in a situation where there is a lot of noise, we often say, in a slightly informal and humorous way, I can’t/I can hardly hear myself think:
There was so much noise, I could hardly hear myself think.
Reblogged this on TRADUÇÃO TÉCNICA E JURAMENTADA.
Very interesting …. I will use it with my pupils. I hope they will enjoy reading this article as much as I did.
That’s lovely to hear! You can find lots of similar articles by myself or my colleague Kate Woodford on this site.
Great article
Very useful, the article is written in pleasant for reading manner. I have never even heard most of these words.
Very interesting usifull tips! I will save them for my own and share with others!
Thanks a lot.. Your blogs are really helpful….
Thank you, everyone, for your lovely comments!
Thank you .k really enjoyed it.it was informative and fun to read
If someone wants to see a good post and that person tells me to show me a post which is very beautiful and in which one word written is written very thoughtfully, then I would like to show your post to that person because in your post that Everything is in a good post.
That is such a lovely comment – thank you so much!
This one was really useful, I’ve just saved it!
it’s easy to remember when words are put in a vivid scenario
I liked a lot this article, it was very useful for me and now I can change the way of saying these words to enrich my vocabulary.
That`s quite interesting!!! I`ve never ever heard of so many other vocabularies concerning the adjectives Loud and Noisy. Thanks for this amazing article!
very userful for English beginners,thank you
Thanks everyone – I’m glad you found the article useful!
Thanks everyone!
“We were told to listen to three loud blasts of the horn” wormwood, the bitten star? I was told to look for two stars. I guess the people weren’t satisfied with one sacrifice, and demanded one more, as there outer lack of mercy sealed it’s fate. “He roared abuse at us” I’ll save this for the king’s chambers, and hope for mercy when convicted. Classic peace love!!
Wow, you have beautifully decorated this post. I really appreciate it very much. People like you also exist in the world. Who share everything. And there are some people who do not share anything with anyone. I wish today’s youth wrote your kind post, thank you very much.