voice
n. C / Un. the sound you make when you speak or sing. You use your voice to share ideas and feelings with other people.
n. the sound produced in a person's larynx and uttered through the mouth, as speech or song. In a literary context, it refers to the distinctive style or perspective of a writer or narrator.
She has a very soft and gentle voice.
The singer lost her voice after performing three concerts in a row during the cold winter week.
The novelist spent years refining her narrative voice to ensure the protagonist's internal struggles felt authentic and immediate to the reader.
From Middle English voice, voys, vois, borrowed from Anglo-Norman voiz, voys, voice, Old French vois, voiz (Modern French voix), from Latin vōcem, accusative form of vōx (“voice”), from Proto-Indo-European wṓkʷs, root noun from wekʷ- (“to utter, speak”). Cognate with Sanskrit वाच् (vāc), Ancient Greek ὄψ (óps), Persian آواز (âvâz). Displaced native Middle English steven (“voice”) (from Old English stefn (see steven)), Old English hlēoþor, Old English woþ, and Old English reord. Compare advocate, advowson, avouch, convoke, vocal, vouch, vowel. Doublet of vox.
From Middle English voysen, voicen, from the noun (see above).
Countable when referring to a specific person's sound or a literary style; uncountable when referring to the general faculty of speech.