Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A soft, whispering or rustling sound; a murmur.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A whispering; a soft murmur.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A whispering; a soft murmur.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun : a low, indistinct continuous whispering sound; a murmur

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun speaking softly without vibration of the vocal cords
  • noun the indistinct sound of people whispering

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English susurracioun, from Late Latin susurrātiō, susurrātiōn-, from Latin susurrātus, past participle of susurrāre, to whisper, from susurrus, whisper, ultimately of imitative origin.]

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Examples

  • Cave honors his own definition with songs that truly "resonate with the susurration of sorrow, tintinnabulation of grief" like "Straight to You", "Nobody's Baby Now", and the slayer "Into My Arms".

    Tamsin Smith: Sketches of Spain Tamsin Smith 2011

  • Cave honors his own definition with songs that truly "resonate with the susurration of sorrow, tintinnabulation of grief" like "Straight to You", "Nobody's Baby Now", and the slayer "Into My Arms".

    Tamsin Smith: Sketches of Spain Tamsin Smith 2011

  • It was the susurration of voices the Doctor noticed first.

    YW? coming along amberfocus 2008

  • But the dead only fed the living and each morning when the people woke it was to the scraping and beating of wings, the murmurous susurration, the awful cooing babble, and the sight, to those who still possessed intact windows, of the curious and gentle faces of those creatures.

    Excerpt: The Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich 2008

  • The susurration of multiple overlapping conversations reverberated off the walls.

    Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light David R. George III 2010

  •  The clutter upstairs seemed rearranged in some maddeningly imperceptible way, and it, too, had its own noise, which alternated between a susurration and a high-pitched buzz.

    The Secret Animal 2010

  • That ocean, Bowman realized, must be very shallow; even if there was no dry land, there must be many reefs almost breaking the surface, to produce that endless susurration.

    Tin 2010

  • That and the susurration of the river made Jason jeez.

    Inroads Jr. Emeniano Acain Somoza 2009

  • The bones touched signs, and the signs whispered and murmured, in a low susurration that did not resolve into speech.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

  • The bones touched signs, and the signs whispered and murmured, in a low susurration that did not resolve into speech.

    Wildfire Sarah Micklem 2009

Comments

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  • I usually see this word referring to the sound of the wind in tree leaves. I didn't realize it implied whispered language. How poetic. <3

    February 28, 2008

  • I always thought of it in terms of a heartbeat.

    March 21, 2009

  • This is Terry Pratchett's favourite word.

    April 9, 2009

  • I think it's onomatopoeic.

    June 6, 2011

  • Outside my window, the sweet susurration of two squirrels scampering on the dry bark of a plane tree.

    July 16, 2015