Word.ws English Dictionary

noise

/ˈnoɪ̯z/

noise noun: various sounds, usually unwanted or unpleasant.

Noun

noise (countable and uncountable, plural noises)

  1. (uncountable) Various sounds, usually unwanted or unpleasant.
    • He knew that it was trash day, when the garbage collectors made all the noise.
    • The heavens turn about in a most rapid motion without noise to us perceived.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
    Synonyms:
    sound
  2. Any sound.
    • The sudden noise made everyone jump.
    • She crept up behind him not making a noise.
  3. Sound or signal generated by random fluctuations.
    • The complete flutter of the distant signal would probably so entirely destroy its identity that the crosstalk from it would be a substantially unintelligible noise.1909, De Loss K. Martin, Glenn D. Gillett and Isabel S. Bemis, “Some Possibilities and Limitations in Common Frequency Broadcasting”, in Proceedings of the IEEE, volume 15, page 215
  4. Any part of a signal or data that reduces the clarity, precision, or quality of the desired output.
    • signal-to-noise ratio
    • On the technical side, the scanning and OCR of texts, in combination with the graphic design of high school text books, introduced a certain level of noise into the corpus which in turn led to a higher tagging error rate than usual and may affect count precision.2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Position vectors, homologous chromosomes and gamma rays: Promoting disciplinary literacy through Secondary Phrase Lists”, in English for Specific Purposes, →DOI...
  5. Variation or deviation generated by random fluctuations.
  6. (broadly, figuratively) Unwanted fuss or bustle; useless activity.
    • In order to provide coherence and confidence, the leader must dramatically turn down the noise level in the organization, eliminate any unnecessary distractions that inevitably get in the way of execution, and banish the fear of uncertainty.2013, R. Douglas Williamson, Straight Talk on Leadership: Solving Canada's Business Crisis
  7. The measured level of variation in gene expression among cells, regardless of source, within a supposedly identical population.
  8. Rumour or complaint.
    • The problems with the new computer system are causing a lot of noise at Head Office.
    • What noise have we had for fome Years about Transplantation of diseases and transfusion of blood!1709-1710, Thomas Baker, Reflections on Learning
  9. (informal) Speech that is suggestive of an attitude or opinion.
    • Despite encouraging noises made by politicians from time to time, the two sides there have never been further from an agreement.2012, Richard Oliver Collin, Pamela L. Martin, An Introduction to World Politics, page 425
  10. (obsolete) Music, in general; a concert; also, a company of musicians; a band.
    • The king has his noise of gypsies.1621 August 13 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Ben Jonson, “The Masque of the Gypsies”, in Q. Horatius Flaccus: His Art of Poetry. […], London: […] J[ohn] Okes, for John Benson […]...
    • That we on earth, with undiscording voice, / May rightly answer that melodious noise1646 (indicated as 1645), John Milton, “At A Solemn Musick”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], →OCLC
  11. A genre of rock music that uses static and other non-musical sounds, also influenced by art rock.

Verb

noise (third-person singular simple present noises, present participle noising, simple past and past participle noised)

  1. (intransitive) To make a noise; to sound.
    • Those terrours, which thou speak'st of, did me none ;
      I never fear'd they could, though noising loud
      And threatening nigh1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker...
  2. (transitive) To spread news of; to spread as rumor or gossip.
    • an ugly story that was being noised about in newsrooms across the nation
    • When this was noysed aboute, the multitude cam togedder and were astonyed, because that every man herde them speake in his awne tongue.1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, Acts

noise meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

noise in Hindi

various sounds, usually unwanted
शोर śor, रव rav, आहट āhaṭ, आवाज़ āvāz

noise in Tamil

இரைச்சல், சத்தம், அரவம், சந்தடி

noise in Marathi

noise, racket, tumult, clamour
गडबड gaḍbaḍ

noise in Urdu

various sounds, usually unwanted
شور śor, آواز āvāz
More languagesFewer languages
noise in Bengali
আওয়াজ aōẇaj, গড়বড় goṛoboṛ
noise in Telugu
అల్లరి allari, గలగల galagala, చప్పుడు cappuḍu, మ్రోత mrōta
noise in Malayalam
അടലി aṭali, ശബ്ദം śabdaṁ, അംബം ambaṁ
noise in Kannada
ಅಬ್ಬರ abbara, ಗದ್ದಲ gaddala
noise in Punjabi
ਰੌਲ਼ਾ rauḷā, رولا raulā, ਡੰਡ ḍaṇḍ
noise in Gujarati
ઘોંઘાટ
noise in Odia
ଘୋଷ ghoṣa
noise in Sanskrit
घोष ghoṣa
noise in Sinhala
හඬ​ haⁿḍa, බණ baṇa
noise in Assamese
হুলস্থূল hulosthul, চিঞৰ-বাখৰ sio͂ro-bakhor
noise in Tagalog
ingay
noise in Arabic
ضَوْضَاء ḍawḍāʔ, ضَجِيج ḍajīj, ضَجَّة ḍajja, حِسّ ḥess
noise in Malay
bunyi, bising
noise in Indonesian
kebisingan, berisik
noise in Persian
نوفیدن nufidan
noise in Thai
เสียง sǐiang
noise in Vietnamese
tiếng ồn
noise in Myanmar
အသံ a.sam

Examples of noise in a sentence

  • Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:
  • He [Socrates] lived in Athens during the great plague, which has made so much noise through all ages.October 13, 1711, Joseph Addison, The Spectator, No. 195

All 40 example sentences with noise

Synonyms of noise

5 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of noise

Forms of noise

Noun
pluralnoises
Verb
third-person singular presentnoises
present participlenoising
past participlenoised
pastnoised

Plural of noise: noises

Origin of noise

From Middle English noyse, noise, from Old French noise (“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”), of uncertain origin. According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense. Potentially a reduced form of Old French enoiier (“to bother, to disturb”), from Latin inodio (“to make repulsive”) - which would make it a doublet of English annoy (“to bother, to irritate”) and English ennui (“boredom, jadedness, depression”). Compare Piedmontese nojé (“to bother, to annoy”), though this fails to explain the final /z/. Displaced native Old English swēġ.

Words formed from noise

Phrases with noise

30 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with noise

2 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about noise

What does noise mean?
Noise means various sounds, usually unwanted or unpleasant.
What is noise in Hindi?
Noise in Hindi is शोर (śor), रव (rav), आहट (āhaṭ). See Noise meaning in Hindi.
How do you use noise in a sentence?
Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.
What part of speech is noise?
Noise can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce noise?
Noise is pronounced /ˈnoɪ̯z/.
What is the plural of noise?
The plural of noise is noises.

Words near noise in the dictionary

  1. noirish
  2. noirishly
  3. noirishness
  4. noirs
  5. NOIs
  6. noise
  7. noise barrier
  8. noise barriers
  9. noise cancellation
  10. noise floor
  11. noise footprint

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: noise (page history and authors); noise (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); गडबड (Marathi) (page history and authors); আওয়াজ (Bengali) (page history and authors); అల్లరి (Telugu) (page history and authors); അംബം (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ಅಬ್ಬರ (Kannada) (page history and authors); رولا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); noise (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଘୋଷ (Odia) (page history and authors); බණ (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-noise.ogg, En-uk-noise.ogg.

Cite this entry: “noise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/noise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.