Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Having no voice; mute.
  • adjective Linguistics Uttered without vibration of the vocal cords, as the sounds (t) and (p).

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Having no voice, utterance, or vote; mute; dumb.
  • In phonetics, not voiced or sonant; surd.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
  • adjective (Phon.) Not sounded with voice; ; surd.
  • adjective (Phon.) a consonant made with no audible sound except in the transition to or from another sound; a surd mute, as p, t, k.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Lacking a voice, without vocal sound.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective deprived of the rights of citizenship especially the right to vote
  • adjective produced without vibration of the vocal cords
  • adjective being without sound through injury or illness and thus incapable of all but whispered speech
  • adjective uttered without voice

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

voice +‎ -less

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word voiceless.

Examples

  • Having a voice, after growing up voiceless is a real accomplishment and I feel good about where I am.

    A Conversation with Antwone Quenton Fisher 2010

  • Compassion for the voiceless is truly an admirable cause.

    All four ex-presidents to attend Kennedy funeral 2009

  • The first is called a voiceless stop, the second a voiced stop but the third a voiced aspirate stop.

    How to pronounce Proto-Indo-European stops 2007

  • Giving a voice to the voiceless, that is what blogging can do.

    Archive 2006-07-01 2006

  • Giving a voice to the voiceless, that is what blogging can do.

    Thoughts on the SAT from a student blogging during her vacation 2006

  • ACORN activists across the country say being the voice for the voiceless is the real story of their organization.

    Statesman - AP Sports 2009

  • And in fact, for me, one of the most critical challenges on the trade score, Tumi, on debt relief, on all of it is that when Trevor Manuel and other African finance ministers call for a voicing of the voiceless -- in other words, give some representation to Africa and other developing countries in the World Bank and IMF, it's not just because they want to be there at the table; it's precisely because they want to have a say and a stake in determining the policies that are, after all, carved out to help Africans development.

    CNN Transcript Jun 122, 2005 2005

  • -- A neckband translates thought into speech by picking up nerve signals, allowing the first 'voiceless' phone call.

    Coffee Break: March 13 2008

  • Here below, I'll use the dental stop series of *t, *d and *dh as examples of the general 3-way contrast of PIE stops between what is traditionally described as "voiceless", "voiced" and "voiced aspirated".

    Archive 2008-01-01 2008

  • Here below, I'll use the dental stop series of *t, *d and *dh as examples of the general 3-way contrast of PIE stops between what is traditionally described as "voiceless", "voiced" and "voiced aspirated".

    Winter's Law in Balto-Slavic, "Hybrid Theory" and phonation - Part 2 2008

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.