Word.ws English Dictionary

sourdine

UK/sʊəˈdiːn/

sourdine noun: a muted trumpet.

Noun

sourdine (plural sourdines)

  1. (historical) A muted trumpet.
  2. (historical) A mute; a damper.

Adjective

sourdine (comparative more sourdine, superlative most sourdine)

  1. Muffled, muted; subdued.
    • The streets had been considerably quieter in the sourdine Past.1969, Vladimir Nabokov, Ada or Ardor, Penguin, published 2011, page 436

Forms of sourdine

Noun
pluralsourdines
Adjective
comparativemore sourdine
superlativemost sourdine

Origin of sourdine

From French sourdine.

Questions about sourdine

What does sourdine mean?
Sourdine means a muted trumpet.
What part of speech is sourdine?
Sourdine can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce sourdine?
Sourdine is pronounced /sʊəˈdiːn/ (UK).
What is the plural of sourdine?
The plural of sourdine is sourdines.

Words near sourdine in the dictionary

  1. sourd
  2. sourde
  3. sourded
  4. sourdeline
  5. sourdelines
  6. sourdine
  7. sourdines
  8. sourding
  9. sourdock
  10. sourdocks
  11. sourdough

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sourdine (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:

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