Meaning & use
decibel
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A unit for measuring how strong a sound or signal is, using a scale where each step up means a much bigger increase in power.
Grammar: Used with numbers: a sound of 90 decibels. Often written dB.
Patterns
- measured in decibels
- at X decibels
A normal conversation is about sixty decibels.
The siren reached more than a hundred decibels at close range.
Workers must wear ear protection when noise exceeds eighty-five decibels.
Word forms
| plural | decibels |
|---|
Common combinations
- measured in decibels
- Noise from the machines is measured in decibels.
- decibel level
- The decibel level at the concert was dangerously high.
- decibel meter
- She held a decibel meter up to the speaker.
- deafening decibels
- The jet engine produced deafening decibels.
- reduce the decibels
- Please reduce the decibels, the baby is sleeping.
Synonyms and how they differ
- volume
- Volume is how loud something seems or is set to be, while a decibel is the exact unit used to put a number on it.
- loudness
- Loudness describes how strong a sound feels to a listener, whereas decibels give an objective measurement.
- intensity
- Intensity is a more general physics term for the strength of a sound or other wave, while the decibel is one scale for expressing it.
Word family
Commonly confused: decibel or volume?
decibel vs volume
Volume is the general level of loudness, such as turning the volume up. A decibel is the unit used to measure it, so you cannot say a speaker has a volume of loud.
Practice
The factory floor was so noisy that the meter showed 105 ____.
Choose one answer.
Decibels measure sound level. Decimeters measure length, and decades and degrees do not describe noise.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “decibel”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.