Standard Lemma guide

hoarseness

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.

  • Received-Pronunciation: hôsnəs
  • Received-Pronunciation: /hɔːsnəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: hôrsnəs
  • General-American:
  • homophone: horseness (horse–hoarse merger)
  • CMU ARPABET: HH AO1 R S N AH0 S Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

The quality of being hoarse, of having a dry harsh voice.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable, usually

Examples

  • The hoarseness of her voice was caused by years of smoking.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: dysphonia

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

a throaty harshness

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: gruffness, huskiness

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: harshness, roughness

History

Etymology

From Middle English hosnesse, from Old English hāsnes; equivalent to hoarse + -ness.

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: بُحَاح (buḥāḥ) — having dry harsh voice
  • Azerbaijani: xırıltı — having dry harsh voice
  • Catalan: ronquera — having dry harsh voice
  • Catalan: rogall — having dry harsh voice
  • Czech: chrapot — having dry harsh voice
  • Finnish: käheys — having dry harsh voice
  • Galician: rouquén — having dry harsh voice
  • German: Heiserkeit — having dry harsh voice
  • Ancient Greek: βράγχος (bránkhos) — having dry harsh voice
  • Ancient Greek: κέρχνος (kérkhnos) — having dry harsh voice
  • Icelandic: hæsi — having dry harsh voice
  • Indonesian: keserakan — having dry harsh voice
  • Indonesian: keparauan — having dry harsh voice
  • Irish: piachán — having dry harsh voice
  • Italian: arrochimento — having dry harsh voice
  • Italian: raucedine — having dry harsh voice
  • Italian: rochezza — having dry harsh voice
  • Italian: rocaggine — having dry harsh voice
  • Latin: rāvis — having dry harsh voice
  • Middle English: hosnesse — having dry harsh voice
  • Norwegian Bokmål: heshet — having dry harsh voice
  • Norwegian Bokmål: håshet — having dry harsh voice
  • Old English: hāsnes — having dry harsh voice
  • Polish: chrypa — having dry harsh voice
  • Polish: chrypka — having dry harsh voice
  • Portuguese: rouquidão — having dry harsh voice
  • Romanian: răgușeală — having dry harsh voice
  • Russian: хрипота (xripota) — having dry harsh voice
  • Scottish Gaelic: tùchan — having dry harsh voice
  • Spanish: ronquera — having dry harsh voice
  • Spanish: ronquez — having dry harsh voice
  • Swedish: heshet — having dry harsh voice