noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
General-American:/ˈdɛsɪbɛl/
General-American:/ˈdɛsɪbəl/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
CMU ARPABET:D EH1 S AH0 B EH2 L
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
A common measure of intensity ratio (e.g. for sound) that is one tenth of a bel on the logarithmic intensity scale. It is defined as dB = 10 log10(P1 / P2), where P1 and P2 are the relative intensities.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
a logarithmic unit of sound intensity; 10 times the logarithm of the ratio of the sound intensity to some reference intensity
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: dB
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: sound unit
History
Etymology
From deci- + bel.
Across languages
Translations
30 source translations are retained for this English entry.
Asturian:
decibeliu
— a common measure of relative intensity
Catalan:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Chinese Mandarin:
分貝 /分贝
(fēnbèi)
— a common measure of relative intensity
Czech:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Danish:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Dutch:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Finnish:
desibeli
— a common measure of relative intensity
French:
décibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Galician:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Galician:
decibelio
— a common measure of relative intensity
German:
Dezibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Greek:
ντεσιμπέλ
(ntesimpél)
— a common measure of relative intensity
Hawaiian:
ikakani
— a common measure of relative intensity
Hungarian:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Icelandic:
desibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Italian:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Japanese:
デシベル
(deshiberu)
— a common measure of relative intensity
Korean:
데시벨
(desibel)
— a common measure of relative intensity
Latvian:
decibels
— a common measure of relative intensity
Lithuanian:
decibelas
— a common measure of relative intensity
Malay:
desibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Māori:
wae paoro
— a common measure of relative intensity
Norwegian Bokmål:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Polish:
decybel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Portuguese:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Romanian:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Russian:
децибе́л
(decibél)
— a common measure of relative intensity
Spanish:
decibelio
— a common measure of relative intensity
Swedish:
decibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
Turkish:
desibel
— a common measure of relative intensity
