loud
adj.adj. Making a lot of noise. Something that is loud is easy to hear, sometimes in an unpleasant way.
adj. Producing or characterized by a high volume of sound. It can also describe colors or patterns that are unpleasantly bright or bold.
The music is too loud.
He had to speak in a loud voice to be heard over the traffic.
His critics dismissed the suit's loud pattern as a desperate cry for attention in a crowded field of more subtle designs.
From Middle English loude, loud, lud, from Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”), from Proto-West Germanic hlūd, from Proto-Germanic hlūdaz, hlūþaz (“heard”), from Proto-Indo-European ḱlewtos (“heard, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). More at listen. Cognates Akin to Scots loud, lowd (“loud”), Swedish ljud, West Frisian lûd (“loud”), Dutch luid (“loud”), Low German lud (“loud”), German laut (“loud”), Irish clú (“repute”), Welsh clywed (“heard”), clod (“praise”), Latin laudare (“praise”), Tocharian A/B klots/klautso 'ear', klyostär 'heard', Ancient Greek κλυτός (klutós, “famous”), Albanian quaj (“to name, call”), shquar (“famous, notorious”), Old Armenian լու (lu, “the act of hearing”), Old Church Slavonic слава (slava, “glory”), слово (slovo, “word”), Sanskrit श्रव (śráva, “glory”).
From Middle English loude, from Old English hlūde (“loudly”), from Proto-Germanic hlūda, hlūdô (“loudly”), related to Etymology 1.
Functions as both an adjective and a flat adverb ('speak loud'), though 'loudly' is the more common adverbial form in formal writing.