web.archive.org

noise: Definition, Synonyms and Much More from Answers.com

  • ️Wed Jul 01 2015

Dictionary:

noise

  

(noiz) pronunciation

n.

    1. Sound or a sound that is loud, unpleasant, unexpected, or undesired.
    2. Sound or a sound of any kind: The only noise was the wind in the pines.
  2. A loud outcry or commotion: the noise of the mob; a lot of noise over the new law.
  3. Physics. A disturbance, especially a random and persistent disturbance, that obscures or reduces the clarity of a signal.
  4. Computer Science. Irrelevant or meaningless data.
  5. Informal.
    1. A complaint or protest.
    2. Rumor; talk.
    3. noises Remarks or actions intended to convey a specific impression or to attract attention: “The U.S. is making appropriately friendly noises to the new Socialist Government” (Flora Lewis).

v., noised, nois·ing, nois·es.

v.tr.

To spread the rumor or report of.

v.intr.

  1. To talk much or volubly.
  2. To be noisy; make noise.

[Middle English, from Old French, perhaps from Vulgar Latin *nausea, discomfort, from Latin nausea, seasickness. See nausea.]

SYNONYMS  noise, din, racket, uproar, pandemonium, hullabaloo, hubbub, clamor, babel. These nouns refer to loud, confused, or disagreeable sound or sounds. Noise is the least specific: deafened by the noise in the subway. A din is a jumble of loud, usually discordant sounds: the din of the factory. Racket is loud, distressing noise: the racket made by trucks rolling along cobblestone streets. Uproar, pandemonium, and hullabaloo imply disorderly tumult together with loud, bewildering sound: “The evening uproar of the howling monkeys burst out” (W.H. Hudson); “a pandemonium of dancing and whooping, drumming and feasting” (Francis Parkman); a tremendous hullabaloo in the agitated crowd. Hubbub emphasizes turbulent activity and concomitant din: the hubbub of bettors, speculators, tipsters, and touts. Clamor is loud, usually sustained noise, as of a public outcry of dissatisfaction: “not in the clamor of the crowded street” (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow); a debate that was interrupted by a clamor of opposition. Babel stresses confusion of vocal sounds arising from simultaneous utterance and random mixture of languages: guests chattering in a babel of tongues at the diplomatic reception.

WORD HISTORY   Those who find that too much noise makes them ill will not be surprised that the word noise can possibly be traced back to the Latin word nausea, “seasickness, feeling of sickness.” Our words nausea and noise are doublets, that is, words borrowed in different forms from the same word. Nausea, first recorded probably before 1425, was borrowed directly from Latin. Noise, first recorded around the beginning of the 13th century, came to us through Old French, which explains its change in form. Old French nois probably also came from Latin nausea, if, as seems possible, there was a change of sense during the Vulgar Latin period, whereby the meaning “seasickness” changed to a more general sense of “discomfort.” Word meanings can sometimes change for the better, and nowadays, of course, a noise does not have to be something unpleasant, as in the sentence “The only noise was the wind in the pines.”


(1) Extraneous, unwanted signals that invade an electrical or optical system. In electronics, noise can come from strong electrical or magnetic signals in nearby lines, from poorly fitting electrical contacts and from power line spikes. In optics, noise comes from the stray reflections of light that emanate from the various components in the optical system. See signal-to-noise ratio and noise cancellation.

(2) Distortions in analog and digital video images that are caused by a variety of circumstances. The silver grains in the original film create granular noise. Electronic circuits create Gaussian noise. Drop outs and bit errors in digital tapes create impulse noise, and the digitization process creates quantization noise. See Gaussian noise, dynamic noise reduction and artifact.

Price and volume fluctuations in the market that can confuse one's interpretation of market direction. Used in the context of equities, it is stock market activity caused by program trading, dividend payments or other phenomena that is not reflective of overall market sentiment. Also known as "market noise".

Investopedia Says:
In general, the shorter the time frame, the more difficult it is to separate the meaningful market movements from the noise. Noise traders attempt to take advantage of market noise by entering buy and sell transactions without the use of fundamental data.

Related Links:
False signals can drown out underlying trends. Find out how to tone them down and tune them out. Trading Without Noise
This relatively unknown tool could help you find an asset's trend faster. A Look At Kagi Charts
Tune out the accounting noise and see whether a company is generating the stuff it needs to sustain itself. The Essentials Of Cash Flow
This tool smooths trends and makes them easier to indentify. Confirm Forex Momentum With Heikin Ashi


Stock-market activity caused by Program Trades and news and comment affecting prices that is unsubstantiated.

noun

  1. Sounds or a sound, especially when loud, confused, or disagreeable: babel, clamor, din, hubbub, hullabaloo, pandemonium, racket, rumpus, tumult, uproar. See sounds/pleasant sounds/unpleasant sounds/neutral sounds or silence.
  2. The sensation caused by vibrating wave motion that is perceived by the organs of hearing: sonance, sound1. See sounds/pleasant sounds/unpleasant sounds/neutral sounds or silence.

verb

  1. To make (information) generally known: advertise, blaze2, blazon, broadcast, bruit, circulate, disseminate, promulgate, propagate, spread. Idioms: spread far and wide, spread the word. See knowledge/ignorance.
  2. To engage in or spread gossip: blab, gossip, rumor, talk, tattle, tittle-tattle, whisper. Idioms: tell tales, tell tales out of school. See words.

n

Definition: sound which is loud, not harmonious
Antonyms: silence

Sound is an essential form of human communication. However, unwanted sounds, or noise, can lead to a variety of medical problems, including deafness and elevated blood pressure; there is also evidence for an increased pulse rate. There is some evidence suggesting that environmental noise may affect the learning ability of children.

Sound waves are generated by vibrations moving through the air, and they are perceived through a complex interaction of vibrations hitting the inner ear. External vibrations are translated, through bones, into additional vibrations, which are then picked up by hair-like structures in the inner ear. These vibrations are further translated into neurologic signals, which are registered in the brain and received as intelligible information.

Noise can be normal sounds that get in the way of being able to perceive wanted sounds. Sound is measured in units called decibels, and the human ear is well-designed to perceive and interpret sounds at low decibel levels and across a wide spectrum of vibration. Sounds that are too loud, however, can damage the ability of the ear to make sense of what is perceived. A graphic measurement of what one can hear is called an audiogram, and hearing loss can be traced on audiograms. There is some hearing loss that is considered normal with aging, called presbycusis. Additional hearing loss and other physiological damage, may result from excessive loud noise.

There is some controversy as to what level of sound is too high, particularly in workplaces. It is thought that the maximal tolerable noise level for an eight-hour workplace exposure is about seventy-five decibels. The current allowable standard is eighty-five decibels. The standard was decreased from the previous ninety decibel level after a hard-fought battle to try and prevent a significant number of cases of hearing loss. At eighty-five decibels, hearing protection and noise monitoring becomes mandatory. There are several ways that noise can be reduced, either through changes in noise-making equipment itself, or by providing personal protective equipment to individuals who must work in noisy environments. The two basic types of personal protection are earplugs and earmuffs. Earmuffs, which can be put on and taken off more easily, are useful where the noise may be intermittent, such as at airports. Earplugs are more practical for people who spend considerable continuous periods of time in noisy environments.

In addition to noisy workplace environments, there are certain general environments where noise may be a particular problem. Among these are subway systems, where passengers may be intermittently exposed to high noise levels, and in communities located near airports. Over time there has been a considerable effort to diminish the noise around airports, both through the use of quieter engines and through changes in flight paths. In some extreme situations, homes have been bought and people moved out of flight paths near airports to help reduce the risk and annoyance associated with such noise.

(SEE ALSO: Hearing Disorders; Hearing Protection; Occupational Safety and Health)

Bibliography

Moller, A. G. (1992). "Noise as a Health Hazard." In Public Health and Preventive Medicine, 13th edition, eds. J. M. Last and R. M. Wallace. Norwalk, CT: Appleton and Lange.

— ARTHUR L. FRANK


Undesired sound that is intrinsically objectionable or that interferes with other sounds being listened to. In electronics and information theory, noise refers to those random, unpredictable, and undesirable signals, or changes in signals, that mask the desired information content. In radio, this noise is called static; in television, it is called snow. White noise is a complex signal or sound covering the entire range of component frequencies, or tones, all of which possess equal intensity.

For more information on noise, visit Britannica.com.

Any sound which is unwanted because it is annoying, interferes with speech and hearing, or is intense enough to damage hearing.

Noise, mottling or colour-speckle interference in digital images, usually in shadow areas and at sensitivity equivalents of ISO 400 or higher. Noise levels may be related to factors such as the number of pixels in a sensor, or their configuration and architecture, or heat generated by long exposures, or the camera's processing algorithms. Sustained research by manufacturers has reduced noise, in high-end cameras, to a level at or below comparable grain in film.

— Robin Lenman

1. A term used in information theory to indicate a disturbance that does not represent any part of a message from a specified source.

2. Background stimuli (or information), which a person might or might not be aware of, but which is not directly relevant to the task in hand.

3. In signal detection theory, the random firing of the nervous system; that is background neural activity.

any signal that does not convey useful information. Electrical noise consists of electrical currents or voltages that interfere with the operation of electronic systems. Electrical noise limits the sensitivity of radio receiving systems and, when present at high enough levels, may cause false outputs from digital circuits. In radio receivers it is important that the noise produced by amplifiers, especially early-stage amplifiers, be kept as low as possible. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio is an important factor when evaluating much electronic equipment. Random noise originates when a current flows through a conductor that has resistance and is above absolute zero in temperature. It also arises in electron tubes and semiconductor devices, as well as from atmospheric disturbances and radiation from space (see static). Nonrandom noise originates from the operation of other systems, e.g., automotive ignition systems, and from interfering signals. Noise also affects optical detection systems where light is treated by the particle, or quantum, theory. The output voltage of an optical detector is proportional to the intensity of the incident light. The noise can be from the detectors themselves, the electrical amplifiers that amplify the detector outputs, or thermal noise, which is caused by the vibration of atoms and molecules. Noise can also be inherent in the radiation being detected.

1. a loud, harsh and objectionable sound.
2. interference in an ecological or electronic system, but insufficient to stop the system.
3. in statistics when extraneous, uncontrolled variables cause errors in the distribution of data.

  • n. pollution — noise in the environment that adversely affects, in our context, the animal inhabitants. No such ill effects have been demonstrated.

Unwanted electromagnetic radiation within an electrical or mechanical system.


A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

A stench in the ear. Undomesticated music. The chief product and authenticating sign of civilization.

pronunciation

IN BRIEF: Loud, senseless sound.

pronunciation If thunder itself was to be continual, it would excite no more terror than the noise of a mill. — A. Kingston

Quotes:

"All this talk and turmoil and noise and movement and desire is outside of the veil; within the veil is silence and calm and rest." - Bayazid Al-Bistami

"For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible. Our science has always desired to monitor, measure, abstract, and castrate meaning, forgetting that life is full of noise and that death alone is silent: work noise, noise of man, and noise of beast. Noise bought, sold, or prohibited. Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise." - Jacques Attali

"The world is never quiet, even its silence eternally resounds with the same notes, in vibrations which escape our ears. As for those that we perceive, they carry sounds to us, occasionally a chord, never a melody." - Albert Camus

"He who sleeps in continual noise is wakened by silence." - William Dean Howells

"In antiquity there was only silence. In the nineteenth century, with the invention of the machine, Noise was born. Today, Noise triumphs and reigns supreme over the sensibility of men." - Luigi Russolo

In common use the word noise means unwanted sound or noise pollution. In electronics noise can refer to the electronic signal corresponding to acoustic noise (in an audio system) or the electronic signal corresponding to the (visual) noise commonly seen as 'snow' on a degraded television or video image. In signal processing or computing it can be considered data without meaning; that is, data that is not being used to transmit a signal, but is simply produced as an unwanted by-product of other activities. In Information Theory, however, noise is still considered to be information. In a broader sense, film grain or even advertisements in web pages can be considered noise.

Noise can block, distort, or change the meaning of a message in both human and electronic communication.

In many of these areas, the special case of thermal noise arises, which sets a fundamental lower limit to what can be measured or signaled and is related to basic physical processes at the molecular level described by well known simple formulae.

Acoustic noise

When speaking of noise in relation to sound, what is commonly meant is meaningless sound of greater than usual volume. Thus, a loud activity may be referred to as noisy. However, conversations of other people may be called noise for people not involved in any of them, and noise can be any unwanted sound such as the noise of aircraft, neighbours playing loud music, or road sounds spoiling the quiet of the countryside.

For film sound theorists and practitioners at the advent of talkies c.1928/1929, noise was non-speech sound or natural sound and for many of them noise (especially asynchronous use with image) was desired over the evils of dialogue synchronized to moving image. The director and critic René Clair writing in 1929 makes a clear distinction between film dialogue and film noise and very clearly suggests that noise can have meaning and be interpreted: "...it is possible that an interpretation of noises may have more of a future in it. Sound cartoons, using "real" noises, seem to point to interesting possibilities" ('The Art of Sound' (1929)). Alberto Cavalcanti uses noise as a synonym for natural sound ('Sound in Films' (1939)) and as late as 1960, Siegfried Kracauer was referring to noise as non-speech sound ('Dialogue and Sound' (1960)).

Audio noise

In audio, recording, and broadcast systems audio noise refers to the residual low level sound (usually hiss and hum) that is heard in quiet periods of programme.

In audio engineering it can also refer to the unwanted residual electronic noise signal that gives rise to acoustic noise heard as 'hiss'. This signal noise is commonly measured using A-weighting or ITU-R 468 weighting

Electronic noise

Electronic noise exists in all circuits and devices as a result of thermal noise, also referred to as Johnson Noise. Semiconductor devices can also contribute flicker noise and generation-recombination noise. In any electronic circuit, there exist random variations in current or voltage caused by the random movement of the electrons carrying the current as they are jolted around by thermal energy. The lower the temperature the lower is this thermal noise. This same phenomenon limits the minimum signal level that any radio receiver can usefully respond to, because there will always be a small but significant amount of thermal noise arising in its input circuits. This is why radio telescopes, which search for very low levels of signal from stars, use front-end low-noise amplifier circuits, usually mounted on the aerial dish, and cooled with liquid nitrogen.

External links

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
n. - larm, støj, lyd
v. tr. - udbasunere, forkynde vidt og bredt
v. intr. - larme, støje

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    sige det, der forventes, ytre banaliteter
  • noise pollution    lydforurening

Nederlands (Dutch)
lawaai, geluid, gedruis, geruis, kletsen, lawaai schoppen, ruchtbaar maken, veelbesproken zijn (negatief)

Français (French)
n. - bruit, vacarme, (Élec, Télécom) interférences, tapage
v. tr. - rendre public, ébruiter
v. intr. - rendre public, ébruiter

idioms:

  • make all the right noises    se montrer complaisant
  • make the right noises    se montrer complaisant
  • noise pollution    nuisances sonores

Deutsch (German)
n. - Geräusch, Lärm
v. - verbreiten, viel od. laut reden

idioms:

  • make all the right noises    vage sprechen
  • make the right noises    vage sprechen
  • noise pollution    Lärmbelästigung

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - θόρυβος, ορυμαγδός (κν. σαματάς), κρότος, βοή, (μτφ.) πάταγος, σάλος (κν. ντόρος), ηλεκτρονικά παράσιτα
v. - κάνω βούκινο

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    έχω όλες τις σωστές αντιδράσεις, λέω αυτά που περιμένουν να ακούσουν
  • noise pollution    ηχορύπανση

Italiano (Italian)
suono, rumore, perturbazione sonora

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    esprimersi chiaramente
  • noise pollution    inquinamento acustico

Português (Portuguese)
n. - ruído (m), clamor (m), rumor (m), escândalo (m)
v. - fazer barulho, falar muito, propalar

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    expressar algo verbalmente
  • noise pollution    poluição sonora

Русский (Russian)
шум, помехи

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    говорить то, что следует
  • noise pollution    звуковые помехи

Español (Spanish)
n. - ruido, estrépito, tumulto, alboroto, interferencia
v. tr. - esparcir, rumorear, divulgar
v. intr. - hablar a gritos, gritar, meter ruido

idioms:

  • make all the right noises    mostrarse francamente favorable a, hablarse mucho de una cosa
  • make the right noises    mostrarse francamente favorable a, hablarse mucho de una cosa
  • noise pollution    ruido dañino y molesto

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - buller, ljud, bråk, oljud, rykte
v. - sprida (ut)

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
喧闹声, 噪音, 噪声, 谣传, 喧闹

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    随声附和
  • noise pollution    噪音污染

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 喧鬧聲, 噪音, 雜訊
v. tr. - 謠傳
v. intr. - 喧鬧

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    隨聲附和
  • noise pollution    噪音污染

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 평판, 헛소리, 소음
v. tr. - 소문 내다
v. intr. - 지껄이다, 소리를 내다

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    광고나 이목을 끌기에 알맞게 말하다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 音, 騒音, 雑音

idioms:

  • make (all) the right noises    気を引く
  • noise pollution    騒音公害

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) ضجيج (فعل) يحدث ضجه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮רעש, קול, תנודות לא-סדירות הנלוות לאות משודר‬
v. tr. - ‮פרסם, הפיץ, רחש‬
v. intr. - ‮פרסם, הפיץ, רחש‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.


Best of the Web: noise

Some good "noise" pages on the web:

Join the WikiAnswers Q&A; community. Post a question or answer questions about "noise" at WikiAnswers.

Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. THIS COPYRIGHTED DEFINITION IS FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY.
All other reproduction is strictly prohibited without permission from the publisher.
© 1981-2008 Computer Language Company Inc.  All rights reserved.  Read more
Investment Dictionary. Copyright ©2000, Investopedia.com - Owned and Operated by Investopedia Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Financial & Investment Dictionary. Dictionary of Finance and Investment Terms. Copyright © 2006 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Encyclopedia of Public Health. Encyclopedia of Public Health. Copyright © 2002 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 2006 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Photography Encyclopedia. The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. Copyright © 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.  Read more
Sports Science and Medicine. The Oxford Dictionary of Sports Science & Medicine. Copyright © Michael Kent 1998, 2006, 2007. All rights reserved.  Read more
Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Veterinary Dictionary. The Veterinary Dictionary. Copyright © 2007 by Elsevier. All rights reserved.  Read more
Electronics Dictionary. Copyright 2001 by Twysted Pair. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
Word Tutor. Copyright © 2004-present by eSpindle Learning, a 501(c) nonprofit organization. All rights reserved.
eSpindle provides personalized spelling and vocabulary tutoring online; free trial.  Read more
Quotes About. Copyright © 2005 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Noise".  Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more