Word of the Day

: April 15, 2015

stentorian

adjective sten-TOR-ee-un

What It Means

: extremely loud

stentorian in Context

The foreman barked out his orders in a stentorian tone that could be heard clearly over the din of the factory's machinery.

"[Lawrence] Tanter … was the first voice to stand out among the bedlam when the Lakers came from behind to beat Boston in Game 7 of the 2010 Finals. He said simply in his stentorian way, 'Number 16.'" - Mike Bresnahan, Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2015

Did You Know?

The Greek herald Stentor was known for having a voice that came through loud and clear. In fact, in the Iliad, Homer described Stentor as a man whose voice was as loud as that of fifty men together. Stentor's powerful voice made him a natural choice for delivering announcements and proclamations to the assembled Greek army during the Trojan War, and it also made his name a byword for any person with a loud, strong voice. Both the noun stentor and the related adjective stentorian pay homage to the big-voiced warrior, and both have been making noise in English since the early 17th century.