Word.ws English Dictionary

say the quiet part loud

say the quiet part loud verb: to willingly express a sentiment that is normally considered embarrassing, disreputable or controversial to hold; to reveal an ulterior motive.

Verb

say the quiet part loud (third-person singular simple present says the quiet part loud, present participle saying the quiet part loud, simple past and past participle said the quiet part loud)

  1. (idiomatic) To willingly express a sentiment that is normally considered embarrassing, disreputable or controversial to hold; to reveal an ulterior motive.
    • “Just what are you trying to say here, Miss Parker?”
      “That you’re a jingoistic idiot.” Yeah, I said the quiet part loud. I blame the pain meds. But there‘s no way I was letting this metal-heavy moron lecture me about my duty to my country, without giving me the chance to make up my own mind.2012, Dana Fredsti, Plague Town: An Ashley Parker Novel, Titan Books, chapt. 9
    • Donald Trump is not subtle. While normal political language functions through implication and indirection, Mr. Trump luxuriates in saying the quiet part loud. But in doing so, Mr. Trump exposes what drives the politics of the movement he commands.2018 March 17, Chris Hayes, “Chris Hayes: What ‘Law and Order’ Means to Trump”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 12 Feb 2021

Forms of say the quiet part loud

third-person singular presentsays the quiet part loud
present participlesaying the quiet part loud
past participlesaid the quiet part loud
pastsaid the quiet part loud
alternative formsay the quiet part out loud

Origin of say the quiet part loud

Corpus searches seem to confirm that this phrase was absent from widespread usage until after the mid-1990s, when the cartoon character Krusty the Clown used a similar phrase in the episode "A Star Is Burns" of the American animated TV series The Simpsons, saying, "I said the quiet part loud and the loud part quiet."

Questions about say the quiet part loud

What does say the quiet part loud mean?
Say the quiet part loud means to willingly express a sentiment that is normally considered embarrassing, disreputable or controversial to hold; to reveal an ulterior motive.
What part of speech is say the quiet part loud?
Say the quiet part loud is a verb.
What is the past tense of say the quiet part loud?
The past tense of say the quiet part loud is said the quiet part loud.

Words near say the quiet part loud in the dictionary

  1. say one's prayers
  2. say someone's prayers
  3. Say syndrome
  4. say that
  5. say that again
  6. say the quiet part loud
  7. say the quiet part out loud
  8. say the word
  9. say to oneself
  10. say uncle
  11. say wha

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: say the quiet part loud (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-say the quiet part loud.wav.

Cite this entry: “say the quiet part loud.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/say_the_quiet_part_loud. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.