dictionary definitions for "voiceless"


From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Voiceless \Voice"less\, a.
     1. Having no voice, utterance, or vote; silent; mute; dumb.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              I live and die unheard,
              With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a
              sword.                                --Byron.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Phon.) Not sounded with voice; as, a voiceless consonant;
        surd.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     Voiceless stop (Phon.), a consonant made with no audible
        sound except in the transition to or from another sound; a
        surd mute, as p, t, k.
        [1913 Webster] -- Voice"less*ly, adv. --
        Voice"less*ness, n.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

  voiceless
      adj 1: produced without vibration of the vocal cords; "unvoiced
             consonants such as `p' and `k' and `s'" [syn: unvoiced,
             voiceless, surd, hard] [ant: soft, sonant,
             voiced]
      2: deprived of the rights of citizenship especially the right to
         vote; "labor was voiceless"; "disenfrenchised masses took to
         the streets" [syn: disenfranchised, disfranchised,
         voiceless, voteless] [ant: enfranchised]
      3: uttered without voice; "could hardly hear her breathed plea,
         `Help me'"; "voiceless whispers" [syn: breathed,
         voiceless]
      4: being without sound through injury or illness and thus
         incapable of all but whispered speech [syn: aphonic,
         voiceless]


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