Undervoice

//ˈʌndə(ɹ)ˌvɔɪs// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A low or quiet voice.

    "Her sensations were indefinable, and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing Henry Crawford, who had a chair between herself and Tom, ask the latter in an under voice whether there were any plan for resuming the play after the present happy interruption […]"

Verb
  1. 1
    To voice too weakly. transitive

    "Consequently, the danger for Dutch learners of English is undervoicing the English lenis fricatives rather than the reverse."

  2. 2
    To make a quieter or background sound beneath. transitive

    "Undervoicing the flame, there was the popping of hollow weed stalks, the tinkle of woody stems crisping and falling in coals."

Example

More examples

"Her sensations were indefinable, and so were they a few minutes afterwards upon hearing Henry Crawford, who had a chair between herself and Tom, ask the latter in an under voice whether there were any plan for resuming the play after the present happy interruption […]"

Etymology

From under- + voice.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.