ground noise
- noun
- Specialized
:
ruido de fondo
- The technician adjusted the settings to reduce the ground noise in the audio recording.
Examples
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If you do it wrong, it will not function properly, and you may not only create more ground noise than you started with, but you may be risking your life.
Blog text (26) -
To improve sound quality, we need to eliminate the ground noise from the signal.
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The engineer discovered that a faulty connection was causing excessive ground noise in the system.
Synonyms
172
5.6
Extra sounds or information that hide the main message
11
3.5
Unwanted sounds that make it hard to hear or record something
1
5.5
Unwanted electric signals that make devices not work properly
1
4.6
How loud unwanted sound is in a place or recording
An unwanted noise from other sources that gets in the way of a measurement
An unwanted sound that makes phone or audio signals hard to hear
How Noisy
37
4.8
- Specialized
93
6.6
- Specialized
- Specialized
11
3.5
49
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines 'ground' (a reference or baseline in electrical/audio contexts) with 'noise' (unwanted signal), so a learner who knows both words can likely infer it refers to background or baseline noise in a system. However, the precise technical sense—that the noise is tied to the electrical ground/reference and inseparable from the desired signal—requires domain knowledge beyond everyday vocabulary, making the relation only partially predictable.
Etymology
Ground noise may come from the image of a wire or device touching the ground, meaning the earth or a ground wire, and picking up a low, unwanted noise that mixes with the wanted sound. So, ground noise means 'unwanted background noise' that becomes part of the signal and cannot be removed.