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acoustic power

acoustic power

6.6
The amount of sound a source sends out each second
  • noun
  • /əˈkuːstɪk ˈpaʊər/
  • Specialized
translation icon : potencia acústica
  • In his experiment, he measured the acoustic power produced by different musical instruments.

Examples

  • But the organ generates less than 10 watts of acoustic power.

    Academic text (2005)
  • To develop a real appreciation for the relationship between acoustic power and its effect on the car, one might try listening to the majestic organ passage in Saint-Saëns's Third Symphony.

    Academic text (2005)
  • The speaker's acoustic power was impressive, filling the whole auditorium with sound.

  • The engineers calculated the acoustic power of the sound waves emitted from the loudspeaker.

How Loud

to blast
66 4.1
to roar
98 1.0
noise
1.0
acoustic power
  • Specialized
6.6
whisper
110 1.0
silence
660 2.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

acoustic + power

Both constituents are semantically compositional: 'acoustic' relates to sound and 'power' denotes a rate or amount of energy. A learner who knows these meanings can readily infer 'acoustic power' as the power (rate of energy) associated with sound; this is a straightforward, cross-linguistically common noun-noun composition.

Etymology

Acoustic power comes from acoustic (about sound) and power (how much energy or strength something has). Think of a loudspeaker sending out a steady stream of sound energy — that image explains why it means the 'amount of sound energy produced each second'.