Audible Means Loud Enough to Hear — and a Call at the Line
Something audible can be heard. The word sits in a family built on the Latin verb to hear, and in American football it also names a play called out at the last second.
Audible describes a sound faint enough to need mentioning but loud enough to reach the ear. Writers reach for it when a sound is only just there: an audible sigh, an audible click. If a noise were obvious, nobody would call it audible.
- Able to be heard. *There was an audible gasp from the back row.*
- Clear enough to make out. *Please speak up — you are barely audible.*
- A play changed at the line (American football). *The quarterback called an audible.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | audible | An audible hum. |
| Adverb | audibly | She audibly groaned. |
| Noun | audibility | Poor audibility in the hall. |
| Opposite | inaudible | His reply was inaudible. |
| Related | audio | Audio equipment. |
How it is used in a sentence
- The alarm must be audible from every room.Audible from marks the listening point.
- A faint but audible tick came from the engine.The classic pairing with faint.
- He called an audible when he saw the blitz.Sport sense, now also used for any last-minute change of plan.
The hearing family
- Audience — those who hear
- Auditorium — the place where they sit
- Audition — a hearing given to a performer
- Auditor — originally someone who heard accounts read aloud
All of these come from Latin *audire*, to hear. Auditor is the surprise of the group: before written records were standard, accounts were checked by being read out, so the person checking them was literally a listener.
Audible or hearable?
Audible is the normal English word. Hearable exists but sounds improvised, and dictionaries treat it as rare.
Can something be visually audible?
No, though people sometimes write *visibly audible* by mistake. Choose one sense or the other.