stentorian

/stɛnˈtɔː.ɹi.ən/

stentorian adjective: loud, powerful, booming, suitable for giving speeches to large crowds.

Adjective (1)

stentorian (comparative more stentorian, superlative most stentorian)

Loud, powerful, booming, suitable for giving speeches to large crowds.
- Shouts of laughter were elicited, smart biddings drawn out, from the whispers of a timid miss, to the stentorian voice of a fox-hunting squire, and not a few fracas from parties either contending for a supposed prize, or disclaiming their chance for it,...1842, [anonymous collaborator of Letitia Elizabeth Landon], “(please specify the page)”, in Lady Anne Granard; or, Keeping up Appearances. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, pages...
- There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather shouted, in stentorian tones: "I am Tsa. This is my she. Who wishes her more than Tsa?"1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VIII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor...
(broadly) Stern, authoritarian; demanding of respect.

Stentorian (comparative more Stentorian, superlative most Stentorian)

(rare) Rare form of stentorian.
- Neither is eloquence or rhetoric unclaimed by him: he perſuaded with Stentorian loquacity, and convinces by the irreſiſtible powers of a bellowing horſe laugh.1771 April, A Candidate Doctor of Oddities [pseudonym], “To the Printer of the Town and Country Magazine”, in The Town and Country Magazine; or, Universal Repository of Knowledge, Instruction, and...
- Lieut. Col. [Charles] Bœrstler, exerting a Stentorian voice, roared in various directions as though he commanded thousands, and created such a panic in the enemy, that they fled before him whereever he moved.1817, S[amuel] S[tanhope] Smith et al., “Battle of Queenstown; Cannonading from Erie to Ontario; […]”, in David Ramsay, S. S. Smith, et al., History of the United States, from Their First Settlement...

The Irish Caruso-Garibaldi was in superlative form and his stentorian notes were heard to the greatest advantage in the time-honoured anthem sung as only our citizen can sing it.1922 February 2, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 304:
Take the first word of the play, so shocking to contemporary theatergoers, Ubu's stentorian “Merdre!”—which is, of course, the basic French curse word with an added “r” for good, or bad, measure.1989 July 17, John Simon, “The Ubu Boo-Boo”, in New York Magazine, volume 22, number 28, page 47:

From Stentor + -ian, from Ancient Greek Στέντωρ (Sténtōr). Stentor was the herald of the Greek forces in the Iliad, noted for his loud voice.

What does stentorian mean?: Stentorian means loud, powerful, booming, suitable for giving speeches to large crowds.
How do you use stentorian in a sentence?: The Irish Caruso-Garibaldi was in superlative form and his stentorian notes were heard to the greatest advantage in the time-honoured anthem sung as only our citizen can sing it.
What part of speech is stentorian?: Stentorian is an adjective.
How do you pronounce stentorian?: Stentorian is pronounced /stɛnˈtɔː.ɹi.ən/.

Adapted from Wiktionary: stentorian (page history and authors); Stentorian (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stentorian.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Gsinti-I am speaking in a stentorian manner.wav.

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