vociferous

vociferous, clamorous, blatant, strident, boisterous, obstreperous are comparable when they mean so loud and noisy, especially vocally, as to compel attention, often unwilling attention.

Vociferous implies both loud and vehement cries or shouts; it often suggests also a deafening quality

{

watermen, fishwomen, oysterwomen, and . . . all the vociferous inhabitants of both shores— Fielding

}

{

vociferous vindications of their innocence— Irving

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vociferous protests

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Clamorous can imply insistency as well as vociferousness in demanding or protesting

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it was impossible to yield to her clamorous demands— Repplier

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but as often it stresses the notion of sustained din or confused turbulence

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the district had been clamorous with trucks arriving, backing in and out... the drivers bawling and cursing—Peggy Bacon

}

Blatant implies a tendency to bellow or be conspicuously, offensively, or vulgarly noisy or clamorous

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they were heretics of the blatant sort, loudmouthed and shallow-minded— Expositor

}

{

building against our blatant, restless time an unseen, skillful, medieval wall— Lindsay

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Strident basically implies a harsh and discordant quality characteristic of some noises that are peculiarly distressing to the ear; it is applied not only to loud, harsh sounds but also to things which, like these, irresistibly and against one's will force themselves upon the attention

{

the colors are too strident

}

{

the strident yellow note of the cockerel shot up into the sunshine— Gibbons

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{

there was no strident old voice to bid him do this or that; no orders to obey, no fierce and insane faultfinding— Deland

}

Boisterous has usually an implication of rowdy high spirits and flouting of customary order and is applied to persons or things that are extremely noisy and turbulent, as though let loose from all restraint

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from the distant halls the boisterous revelry floated in broken bursts of faint-heard din and tumult— Jerome

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{

boisterous spring winds— Cather

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Obstreperous suggests unruly and aggressive noisiness, typically occurring in resistance to or defiance of authority or restraining influences

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the most careless and obstreperous merriment— Johnson

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{

disrespectful of Parlimentary decorum, they are so obstreperous that sittings sometimes have to be suspended to stop their hubbub— Flanner

}

Analogous words: noisy, sounding (see corresponding nouns at SOUND): bewildering, distracting (see PUZZLE vb)