Standard Lemma guide

murmurous

adj · 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

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  • /ˈmɜː(ɹ).mə.ɹəs/
  • /ˈmɜː(ɹ)m.ɹəs/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Low, indistinct (of a sound); reminiscent of a murmur.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Examples

  • 1959, Samuel Beckett, The Unnamable, in The Beckett Trilogy: Molloy; Malone Dies; The Unnamable, London: Calder, 1994, p. 397, It will be the same silence, the same as ever, murmurous with muted lamentation, panting and exhaling of impossible sorrow, like distant laughter, and brief spells of hush, as of one buried before his time.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective satellite

Meaning 2

characterized by soft sounds- R.P.Warren

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • a murmurous brook
  • a soughing wind in the pines
  • a slow sad susurrous rustle like the wind fingering the pines

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: rustling, soughing, susurrous

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree English murmur Proto-Indo-European *h3ed- Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *h3édosder.? Proto-Italic *-ŏ̄dsos? Old Latin -ōssus Latin -ōsus Old French -usbor. Middle English -ous English -ous English murmurous From murmur + -ous.