loud
adjectivenounadverbcommon in dialogue
- United States//ˈlaʊ̯d//
- Scotland//ˈlʌʉ̯d//
- //ˈlæʊ̯d//
- //ˈlaːd//
- //ˈlɛ̈ʊ̯d//
Of great intensity.
adjective
- 1
Of great intensity.
Turn that music down; it's too loud.
What was that? It sounded like a really loud sneeze.
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.
- 2
Noisy.
a loud party that went on all night
She is loud and stubborn.
- 3
Not subtle or reserved, brash.
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.
Many people, or at least a handful of very loud people, hate to being dubbed Millennial. They see it as derogatory.
- 4
Having unpleasantly and tastelessly contrasting colours or patterns; gaudy.
a loud style of dress; loud colors
In comparison with the loud Portrait of E.C. Ricart (ill. p. 13) two years earlier, Miró has captured a soft, hushed atmosphere here.
- 5
slangHigh-quality; premium; (by extension) having a strong or pungent odour indicating good quality.
- 6
Of great intensity.
Ohls showed the motorcycle officer his badge and we went out on the pier, into a loud fish smell which one night's hard rain hadn't even dented.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz Proto-West Germanic *hlūd Old English hlūd Middle English loude, loud, lud English loud 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, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk lyd, Faroese ljóð, Icelandic hljóð, 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”).
noun
- 1
A loud sound or part of a sound.
The expander doesn't really make the louds louder and the softs softer in one step […]
- 2
slangHigh-quality marijuana.
adverb
- 1
Loudly.
Who knocks so loud at door?
Unluckily that worthy Officer having, in a literal Sense, taken his Fill of Liquor, had been some Time retired to his Bolster, where he was snoaring so loud, that it was not easy to convey a Noise in at his Ears capable of drowning that which issued from his Nostrils.
Money still talks — indeed, thanks in part to the Roberts court, it talks louder than ever. Still, ideas matter too, shaping both how we talk about society and, eventually, what we do.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *hlūdê Proto-West Germanic *hlūdē Old English hlūde Middle English loude English loud From Middle English loude, from Old English hlūde (“loudly”), from Proto-Germanic *hlūda, *hlūdô (“loudly”), related to Etymology 1.
Forms
- plural
- louds
- comparative
- louder
- superlative
- loudest