loud

loud, stentorian, earsplitting, hoarse, raucous, strident, stertorous are comparable when they apply to sounds and mean great in volume or unpleasant in effect.

Loud suggests a volume above normal and sometimes implies undue vehemence or obtrusiveness

{

a loud cry

}

{

a loud blast on a trumpet

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{

loud demands for reform

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{

a loud and unpleasant person

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Stentorian, chiefly applying to voices, implies exceedingly great power and range

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a stentorian voice, husky from much bawling of orders— Jesse

}

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a few words, rendered either completely inaudible or painfully stentorian according to the whim of the microphone— Times Lit. Sup.

}

{

blowing his nose in stentorian tones— Rolvaag

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Earsplitting adds the idea of a physically oppressive loudness, especially shrillness (as of screams or shrieks)

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suddenly he trumpeted, an ear- splitting sound in the close stall— W. V. T. Clark

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{

an earsplitting cry of terror

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Hoarse implies harshness, huskiness, or roughness of tone, sometimes suggesting an accompanying or causal loudness

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the hoarse growling of the mob— Kenneth Roberts

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voice came to my ears . . . tense and hoarse with an overmastering rage— London

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{

the hoarse bellow of the bull whistle— Amer. Guide Series: N.C.

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Raucous implies a loud, harsh, grating tone, especially of voice, often implying rowdiness

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the voices often become raucous or shrill and any proper dignity of the spirit suffers— Benét

}

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music of the city, raucous, jazzy, witty, dramatic— Hanson

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gathering along the platform with thin, bright, raucous laughter— Faulkner

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the raucous vitality of a mining boomtown— Agnew

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Strident adds to raucous the idea of a rasping, discordant but insistent quality, especially of voice

{

scurrying traffic whose strident voice mingles whistle blasts with the hollow clang of bell buoys and the screams of softly wheeling gulls— Amer. Guide Series: N. Y. City

}

{

a sort of a strident, metallic quality about her, revealed in the high pitch of her voice— Sterling & Ascoli

}

{

her vocal attack often sounds strident and explosive— Newsweek

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Stertorous, usually not applied to sounds made by the voice, suggests the loud snoring, or sounds like snoring made in breathing, especially when it is difficult, by persons or animals in sleep, in a coma, or with marked asthmatic difficulties

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the stertorous breathing of the owl— Osbert Sitwell

}

{

the horse is trembling ... its breathing stertorous like groaning— Faulkner

}

Antonyms: low-pitched, low