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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

loud.

Of great intensity.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ˈlaʊ̯d/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈlæʊ̯d//ˈlaːd//ˈlʌʉ̯d/Scotland
  1. Of great intensity.

    Turn that music down; it's too loud.
    What was that? It sounded like a really loud sneeze.
  2. Noisy.

    usually
    a loud party that went on all night
  3. Not subtle or reserved, brash.

    usually
  4. Having unpleasantly and tastelessly contrasting colours or patterns; gaudy.

    usually
    a loud style of dress; loud colors
  5. High-quality; premium; (by extension) having a strong or pungent odour indicating good quality.

    slang
  6. Of great intensity.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz Proto-West Germanic *hlūd Old English hlūd Middle English loude, loud, lud English loud From Middle English loude, loud, lud, from Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlūd, from Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz, *hlūþaz (“heard”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewtos (“heard, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). More at listen. Cognates Akin to Scots loud, lowd (“loud”), Swedish ljud, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk lyd, Faroese ljóð, Icelandic hljóð, West Frisian lûd (“loud”), Dutch luid (“loud”), Low German lud (“loud”), German laut (“loud”), Irish clú (“repute”), Welsh clywed (“heard”), clod (“praise”), Latin laudare (“praise”), Tocharian A/B klots/klautso 'ear', klyostär 'heard', Ancient Greek κλυτός (klutós, “famous”), Albanian quaj (“to name, call”), shquar (“famous, notorious”), Old Armenian լու (lu, “the act of hearing”), Old Church Slavonic слава (slava, “glory”), слово (slovo, “word”), Sanskrit श्रव (śráva, “glory”).

noun/ˈlaʊ̯d/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈlæʊ̯d//ˈlaːd//ˈlʌʉ̯d/Scotland
  1. A loud sound or part of a sound.

    colloquial · countable · uncountable
  2. High-quality marijuana.

    slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz Proto-West Germanic *hlūd Old English hlūd Middle English loude, loud, lud English loud From Middle English loude, loud, lud, from Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlūd, from Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz, *hlūþaz (“heard”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewtos (“heard, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). More at listen. Cognates Akin to Scots loud, lowd (“loud”), Swedish ljud, Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk lyd, Faroese ljóð, Icelandic hljóð, West Frisian lûd (“loud”), Dutch luid (“loud”), Low German lud (“loud”), German laut (“loud”), Irish clú (“repute”), Welsh clywed (“heard”), clod (“praise”), Latin laudare (“praise”), Tocharian A/B klots/klautso 'ear', klyostär 'heard', Ancient Greek κλυτός (klutós, “famous”), Albanian quaj (“to name, call”), shquar (“famous, notorious”), Old Armenian լու (lu, “the act of hearing”), Old Church Slavonic слава (slava, “glory”), слово (slovo, “word”), Sanskrit श्रव (śráva, “glory”).

adv/ˈlaʊ̯d/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/ˈlæʊ̯d//ˈlaːd//ˈlʌʉ̯d/Scotland
  1. Loudly.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- Proto-Indo-European *-tós Proto-Indo-European *ḱlutós Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz Proto-Germanic *-ê Proto-Germanic *hlūdê Proto-West Germanic *hlūdē Old English hlūde Middle English loude English loud From Middle English loude, from Old English hlūde (“loudly”), from Proto-Germanic *hlūda, *hlūdô (“loudly”), related to Etymology 1.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.