susurration

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin susurratio.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -eɪʃən

Noun

susurration (countable and uncountable, plural susurrations)

1. A low, indistinct continuous whispering sound; a murmur.
   • Beyond the Wall by Ambrose Bierce

     The rain was now falling more steadily, with a low, monotonous susurration, interrupted at long intervals by the sudden slashing of the boughs of the trees as the wind rose and failed.

   • 1965 Dune by Frank Herbert

     Halleck nodded, heard the faint susurration and felt the air shift as a lockport swung open beside him.

   • 2004 Oct 17, Laura Cumming, in The Observer. From a whisper to a scream

     Coming in feels almost like going out - an audible breeze threatening to swell into a blizzard, waves breaking and withdrawing, the open air tuned to so many sounds that your own are absorbed in the rise and fall of murmurs, shouts, susurrations, plosives, stutters and echoes - and above them all, like Prospero, the voice of the artist humming to himself as if thinking (or not thinking) aloud.