noise

From Middle English noise, from Old French noise (“a dispute, wrangle, strife, noise”), of uncertain origin. According to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense.

• enPR: noiz, IPA^(key): /nɔɪz/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪz

noise (countable and uncountable, plural noises)

1. Various sounds, usually unwanted or unpleasant.

   He knew that it was trash day, when the garbage collectors made all the noise.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon

     The heavens turn about in a most rapid motion without noise to us perceived.

   • 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax:

     Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour.

2. Sound or signal generated by random fluctuations.
3. (technology) Unwanted part of a signal. (Signal to noise ratio)
4. (genetics) The measured level of variation in gene expression among cells, regardless of source, within a supposedly identical population.
5. Rumour or complaint.

   The problems with the new computer system are causing a lot of noise at Head Office.

   • (Can we date this quote?) T. Baker

     What noise have we had about transplantation of diseases and transfusion of blood!

   • (Can we date this quote?) Spectator

     Socrates lived in Athens during the great plague which has made so much noise in all ages.

6. (obsolete) Music, in general; a concert; also, a company of musicians; a band.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Ben Jonson

     The king has his noise of gypsies.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

7. (music) A genre of rock music that uses static and other non-musical sounds, also influenced by art rock.

• (Various sounds): sound

• (Various sounds): bang, boom, crash, thud

• signal-to-noise
• noiseless
• noises off
• noisy

(Genetics meaning) "Noise in Gene Expression: Origins, Consequences, and Control." Jonathan M. Raser and Erin K. O'Shea (2005). Science. 309(5743):2010-2013.

noise (third-person singular simple present noises, present participle noising, simple past and past participle noised)

1. (intransitive) To make a noise; to sound.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Milton to this entry?)

2. (transitive) To spread news of; to spread as rumor or gossip.
   • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts II:

     When this was noysed aboute, the multitude cam togedder and were astonyed, because that every man herde them speake in his awne tongue.

• noise in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• noise in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• noise at OneLook Dictionary Search

• NESOI, Senoi, eosin

From Old French noise, possibly from Latin nausia, nausea, or alternatively noxia.

• IPA^(key): /nwaz/

noise f (plural noises)

1. (archaic or literary) quarrel, argument

• chercher des noises

• “noise” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• noies

Old French noise.

noise f (plural noises)

1. noise

• French: noise

Origin uncertain; according to some, from Latin nausia, nausea (“disgust, nausea”), compare Old Occitan nauza (“noise, quarrel”); according to others, from Latin noxia (“hurt, harm, damage, injury”); but neither explanation is satisfactory in regard to either form or sense.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnoj.zə/

noise f (oblique plural noises, nominative singular noise, nominative plural noises)

1. dispute, argument
2. noise, sound

• English: noise
• French: noise