"undervoice" meaning in English

See undervoice in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs/, /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈvɔɪs/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undervoice.wav Forms: undervoices [plural]
Etymology: From under- + voice. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|under|voice}} under- + voice Head templates: {{en-noun}} undervoice (plural undervoices)
  1. A low or quiet voice.
    Sense id: en-undervoice-en-noun-m7wTdlA5

Verb

IPA: /ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs/, /ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈvɔɪs/ Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undervoice.wav Forms: undervoices [present, singular, third-person], undervoicing [participle, present], undervoiced [participle, past], undervoiced [past]
Etymology: From under- + voice. Etymology templates: {{prefix|en|under|voice}} under- + voice Head templates: {{en-verb}} undervoice (third-person singular simple present undervoices, present participle undervoicing, simple past and past participle undervoiced)
  1. (transitive) To voice too weakly. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-undervoice-en-verb-~do4sC8B
  2. (transitive) To make a quieter or background sound beneath. Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-undervoice-en-verb-PgiPQwyM Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English heteronyms, English terms prefixed with under-, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 6 20 74 Disambiguation of English heteronyms: 9 19 72 Disambiguation of English terms prefixed with under-: 9 30 61 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 9 21 70 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 7 16 77

Inflected forms

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    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "under",
        "3": "voice"
      },
      "expansion": "under- + voice",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From under- + voice.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "undervoices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "undervoice (plural undervoices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "un‧der‧voice"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 40:",
          "text": "Her sensations were indefinable, and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing Henry Crawford, who had a chair between herself and Tom, ask the latter in an under voice whether there were any plan for resuming the play after the present happy interruption […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1859, George Meredith, chapter XXXVI, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Brayder introduced them to one or two of the men, hastily and in rather an undervoice, as a thing to get over.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Charles R. Johnson, Middle Passage, Simon & Schuster, published 2012, page 171:",
          "text": "A thousand soft undervoices that jumped my jangled senses from his last, weakly syllabled wind to a mosaic of voices within voices, each one immanent in the other, none his but all strangely his […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Don DeLillo, part 5, chapter 4, in Underworld, part 5, New York: Scribner",
          "text": "Through the battered century of world wars and massive violence by other means, there had always been an undervoice that spoke through the cannon fire and ack-ack and that sometimes grew strong enough to merge with the battle sounds. It was the struggle between the state and secret groups of insurgents, state-born, wild-eyed—the anarchists, terrorists, assassins and revolutionaries who tried to bring about apocalyptic change."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, Ted Hughes, “Setebos”, in Birthday Letters, Faber & Faber:",
          "text": "[…] Your mother\nPlayed Prospero, flying her magic in\nTo stage the Masque, and bless the marriage,\nEavesdropping on the undervoices\nOf the honeymooners in Paris […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A low or quiet voice."
      ],
      "id": "en-undervoice-en-noun-m7wTdlA5",
      "links": [
        [
          "low",
          "low#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "quiet",
          "quiet#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "voice",
          "voice#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undervoice.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "undervoice"
}

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "under",
        "3": "voice"
      },
      "expansion": "under- + voice",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From under- + voice.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "undervoices",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "undervoicing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "undervoiced",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "undervoiced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "undervoice (third-person singular simple present undervoices, present participle undervoicing, simple past and past participle undervoiced)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "un‧der‧voice"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984, Beverley Collins, Inger Margrethe Mees, The Sounds of English and Dutch, page 51:",
          "text": "Consequently, the danger for Dutch learners of English is undervoicing the English lenis fricatives rather than the reverse.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To voice too weakly."
      ],
      "id": "en-undervoice-en-verb-~do4sC8B",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To voice too weakly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "6 20 74",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 19 72",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English heteronyms",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 30 61",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms prefixed with under-",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "9 21 70",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "7 16 77",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1902, Martha McCulloch-Williams, Next to the Ground: Chronicles of a Countryside, page 74:",
          "text": "Undervoicing the flame, there was the popping of hollow weed stalks, the tinkle of woody stems crisping and falling in coals.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a quieter or background sound beneath."
      ],
      "id": "en-undervoice-en-verb-PgiPQwyM",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To make a quieter or background sound beneath."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undervoice.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "undervoice"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English heteronyms",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms prefixed with under-",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
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        "2": "under",
        "3": "voice"
      },
      "expansion": "under- + voice",
      "name": "prefix"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From under- + voice.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "undervoices",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "undervoice (plural undervoices)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
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      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter II, in Mansfield Park: […], volume II, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 40:",
          "text": "Her sensations were indefinable, and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing Henry Crawford, who had a chair between herself and Tom, ask the latter in an under voice whether there were any plan for resuming the play after the present happy interruption […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1859, George Meredith, chapter XXXVI, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:",
          "text": "Brayder introduced them to one or two of the men, hastily and in rather an undervoice, as a thing to get over.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1990, Charles R. Johnson, Middle Passage, Simon & Schuster, published 2012, page 171:",
          "text": "A thousand soft undervoices that jumped my jangled senses from his last, weakly syllabled wind to a mosaic of voices within voices, each one immanent in the other, none his but all strangely his […]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1997, Don DeLillo, part 5, chapter 4, in Underworld, part 5, New York: Scribner",
          "text": "Through the battered century of world wars and massive violence by other means, there had always been an undervoice that spoke through the cannon fire and ack-ack and that sometimes grew strong enough to merge with the battle sounds. It was the struggle between the state and secret groups of insurgents, state-born, wild-eyed—the anarchists, terrorists, assassins and revolutionaries who tried to bring about apocalyptic change."
        },
        {
          "ref": "1998, Ted Hughes, “Setebos”, in Birthday Letters, Faber & Faber:",
          "text": "[…] Your mother\nPlayed Prospero, flying her magic in\nTo stage the Masque, and bless the marriage,\nEavesdropping on the undervoices\nOf the honeymooners in Paris […]",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A low or quiet voice."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "low",
          "low#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "quiet",
          "quiet#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "voice",
          "voice#Noun"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undervoice.wav",
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    }
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}

{
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        "2": "under",
        "3": "voice"
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      "name": "prefix"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "From under- + voice.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "undervoices",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "undervoicing",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "undervoiced",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "undervoiced",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "undervoice (third-person singular simple present undervoices, present participle undervoicing, simple past and past participle undervoiced)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "un‧der‧voice"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "1984, Beverley Collins, Inger Margrethe Mees, The Sounds of English and Dutch, page 51:",
          "text": "Consequently, the danger for Dutch learners of English is undervoicing the English lenis fricatives rather than the reverse.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To voice too weakly."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To voice too weakly."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English transitive verbs",
        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
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        {
          "ref": "1902, Martha McCulloch-Williams, Next to the Ground: Chronicles of a Countryside, page 74:",
          "text": "Undervoicing the flame, there was the popping of hollow weed stalks, the tinkle of woody stems crisping and falling in coals.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To make a quieter or background sound beneath."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To make a quieter or background sound beneath."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs/"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˌʌndə(ɹ)ˈvɔɪs/"
    },
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-undervoice.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/5/59/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Flame%2C_not_lame-undervoice.wav.mp3",
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    }
  ],
  "word": "undervoice"
}

Download raw JSONL data for undervoice meaning in English (5.8kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-02 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (db8a5a5 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.