Voice

How to spell voice

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce voice

What does voice mean?

1. nounThe sound produced when a person speaks or sings, or a person's expressed opinion or right to be heard.
2. verbTo express something in spoken words.

Voice in a sentence

• noun

  A sore throat left her voice hoarse for a week.

• verb

  Several residents came forward to voice their concerns about the new car park.

• noun

  Every employee deserves a voice in how the company is run.

• verb

  The union met to voice its objection to the proposed pay freeze.

Where does voice come from?

Language of origin: Latin

The word comes from the Latin vox, with the stem voc- seen in its genitive form vocis, which simply meant 'voice' or 'sound made by the mouth'. From the same root grew a whole family of familiar words about speaking and calling, including 'vocal', 'vocation' (literally a 'calling'), 'advocate', and 'provoke'. Latin vox passed into Old French as voiz or vois, and English adopted it in the 1200s, keeping the French spelling that fused the 'o' and 'i' into the 'oi' digraph. Over time the noun broadened from the literal sound a person makes to figurative senses such as the right to be heard, an expressed opinion, and a category in grammar (active and passive voice). The English verb 'to voice', meaning to put something into spoken words, developed from the noun a few centuries later. The 'oi' spelling, rather than 'oy', and the silent final 'e' are simply inherited from that Old French route.

How the word is built

• voic- (from Latin vox, vocis: voice, sound)
• silent -e