whisper
n. countablen. a very quiet way of speaking that uses your breath rather than your full voice. You use it when you want to be secret or avoid waking someone up.
n. a soft, quiet manner of speaking produced by using the breath without vibrating the vocal cords. Often used to maintain secrecy or avoid detection.
She spoke in a whisper so the baby wouldn't wake up.
The students shared the secret in a whisper during the quiet study session at the library.
The wind carried a faint whisper through the trees, creating an eerie atmosphere that made the hikers feel as though they were being watched.
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.
Often used with the preposition 'in' ('in a whisper') or 'above' ('above a whisper').