Word.ws English Dictionary

sotto voce

UK/ˌsɒtəʊ ˈvəʊtʃeɪ//ˌsɑtoʊ ˈvoʊtʃi/

sotto voce adjective: in soft tones; quiet.

Adjective

sotto voce (not comparable)

  1. (etc) In soft tones; quiet.
    • Then a man called for her, and began to make coarse jokes. But Mr. Pappleworth nodded his head in the direction of the boy, and the talk went on sotto voce.1913, D. H. Lawrence, chapter 5, in Sons and Lovers
    • ‘Hello?’ she shouted, but still her voice came out barely louder than a sotto voce whisper.1985, Gary Russell, Divided Loyalties, page 38
  2. Soft, instruments or voice.
    Synonyms:
    sotto

Adverb

sotto voce (not comparable)

  1. (etc) Quietly.
    • "I am not your dear; I cannot lie down. Send me to school soon, Mrs. Reed, for I hate to live here." I will indeed send her to school soon," murmured Mrs. Reed sotto voce; and gathering up her work, she abruptly quitted the apartment.1847 October 16, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Jane Eyre. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder, and Co., […], →OCLC
    • “Darling,” she says, “a working-class hero is something to be. “Of course,” she adds, sotto voce, “I wouldn’t know.”2007 February 25, William Shaw, quoting Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza, “We Are Not a Muse”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
  2. Sung or played softly, instruments or voice.
    Synonyms:
    sotto

Noun

sotto voce (plural sotto voci)

  1. A direction in a score that a passage in a piece should be played softly, or sung in a low voice, when applied to vocal music.

sotto voce meaning in Tamil and Kannada

sotto voce in Tamil

தனக்குத்தானே

sotto voce in Kannada

quietly (of speech)
ತಗ್ಗುದನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ taggudaniyalli, ಮೆಲುದನಿಯಲ್ಲಿ meludaniyalli, ಮೆತ್ತಗೆ mettage, ತನ್ನಷ್ಟಕ್ಕೆ ತಾನೇ tannaṣṭakke tānē

Synonyms of sotto voce

Forms of sotto voce

pluralsotto voci

Origin of sotto voce

Borrowed from Italian sottovoce (literally “under [the] voice”).

Questions about sotto voce

What does sotto voce mean?
Sotto voce means in soft tones; quiet.
What is sotto voce in Tamil?
Sotto voce in Tamil is தனக்குத்தானே. See Sotto voce meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sotto voce?
Sotto voce can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
How do you pronounce sotto voce?
Sotto voce is pronounced /ˌsɒtəʊ ˈvəʊtʃeɪ/ (UK).

Words near sotto voce in the dictionary

  1. sottishness
  2. sottishnesses
  3. sottisier
  4. sottisiers
  5. sotto
  6. sotto voce
  7. sotto voci
  8. sottocopied
  9. sottocopies
  10. sottocopy
  11. sottocopying

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sotto voce (page history and authors); sotto voce (Tamil Wiktionary) (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)-Sapaa-sotto voce.wav.

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