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PlainSpell

loud

/ˈlaʊ̯d/adjective, noun, adverb

loud is spelled L-O-U-D: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 34 times per million words in written English, the 2,831st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, loud means “Of great intensity” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in loud?

Letters4: L-O-U-D
Syllables1
In writing34 times per million words; the 2,831st most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How common is loud?

Loud appears 34 times per million words in written English, the 2,831st most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce loud?

  • US /ˈlaʊ̯d/
  • /ˈlæʊ̯d/
  • /ˈlaːd/

Loud has one syllable.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-loud.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with loud?

5 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as loud from its last stressed vowel (/aʊd/):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: ould, ludo.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of loud

  • louder comparative
  • loudest superlative
  • louds plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does loud mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

adjective

  1. 1

    Of great intensity.

    Turn that music down; it's too loud.

  2. 2

    Noisy.

    a loud party that went on all night

  3. 3

    Not subtle or reserved, brash.

  4. 4

    Having unpleasantly and tastelessly contrasting colours or patterns; gaudy.

    a loud style of dress; loud colors

  5. 5

    slangHigh-quality; premium; (by extension) having a strong or pungent odour indicating good quality.

  6. 6

    Of great intensity.

noun

  1. 1

    colloquialA loud sound or part of a sound.

  2. 2

    slangHigh-quality marijuana.

adverb

  1. 1

    Loudly.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Loud in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchfort (of a sound), bruyant (noisy), voyant (of a colour, clothing, etc)
Germanlaut (of a sound), grell (of a colour, clothing, etc)
Portuguesealto (of a sound), barulhento (noisy), berrante (of a colour, clothing, etc)
Spanishfuerte, sonoro, duro, alto, fuerte sónicamente, alto acústicamente (of a sound)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does loud come from?

From Middle English loude, loud, lud, from Old English hlūd (“loud, noisy, sounding, sonorous”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlūd, from Proto-Germanic *hlūdaz, *hlūþaz (“heard”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlewtos (“heard, famous”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱlew- (“to hear”). More at listen.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after loud