whisper

CEFRB1

/ˈ(h)wɪspə/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To speak very quietly so that only someone nearby can hear.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    A faint trace or hint (of something).

Examples

  • Don't you know it's rude to whisper?

  • A whisper ran through the crowd.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
5
Synonyms
1

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meaning

  1. A rumor.

noun

Extra meanings

  1. The act of speaking in a quiet voice, especially without vibration of the vocal cords.

  2. The act of speaking in a quiet voice, especially without vibration of the vocal cords; the sound thus produced.

More examples

In context

  • His voice dropped to a whisper.

  • The soup had just a whisper of basil.

  • There are whispers of rebellion all around.

Synonyms

Quick test

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Question 1 · Quick check

She had to blank in his ear because the library was silent.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

From Middle English whisperen, from Old English hwisprian (“to mutter, murmur, whisper”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwisprōn, from Proto-Germanic *hwisprōną (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱweys-, *ḱwey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with Dutch wisperen (“to whisper”), German wispern (“to mumble, whisper”). Related also to Danish hviske (“to whisper”), Icelandic hvískra (“to whisper”), Norwegian Bokmål hviske, kviskre (“to whisper”), Norwegian Nynorsk kviskre, kviskra (“to whisper”), Swedish viska (“to whisper”). More at English whistle.