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Glite Dictionary
🗣️ Without vocal cords 🤫 Without speaking
voicelessly

voicelessly

6.5
By making a speech sound without the vocal cords vibrating
  • adverb
  • /ˈvɔɪsləsli/
  • Specialized
translation icon : sin vibración
  • In phonetics, certain consonants are produced voicelessly, meaning there is no vibration in the vocal cords.

Examples

  • In phonetics, some consonants are articulated voicelessly while others are voiced.

  • The teacher demonstrated how to pronounce the sounds voicelessly.

  • The teacher demonstrated how to pronounce the sound voicelessly for the class.

  • She whispered voicelessly so that no one else could hear her.

  • He spoke voicelessly during the meditation session.

  • The teacher showed us how to pronounce some sounds voicelessly without using our vocal cords.

  • During the silent acting class, she communicated voicelessly to convey her emotions without speaking.

Surface Forms

voicelessly positive

Morphology

voicelessly = voiceless (semi-transparent) = voice + less + ly

Formationally clear, but the sense is technical (phonetic: produced without vocal-cord vibration), which may not be obvious to average learners from the components alone.

Etymology

Voicelessly comes from voice, from Latin vox meaning 'voice', plus -less ('without') and -ly, and in language it describes sounds made with no voice. So to pronounce a sound voicelessly is to make it 'without' the vocal cords moving, like the sounds 'p', 't', or 'k'.