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# decibel

noun (a decibel, decibels — written dB)

«decibel» in the English dictionary: everyday — its meanings, how the lessons use it, and examples, each with its tree on Mova.

## Everyday

(science) A decibel is a unit for measuring how loud a sound is. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#m1)

### In the lessons

In science, sounds are measured in decibels: whispering is about 30 dB, normal talk about 60 dB, a busy road about 80 dB, a rock concert over 100 dB. Long exposure above about 85 dB can damage hearing — wear ear protection and keep headphones at safe volume.

### Examples

- A whisper is about 30 decibels. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#x1)
- The concert reached 110 decibels. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#x2)
- Sounds above 85 decibels can harm your hearing over time. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#x3)
- We measured the playground noise in decibels with an app. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#x4)
- The teacher's whistle was very high in decibels. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#x5)
- Lower the volume on your headphones to keep the decibels down. [tree →](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/#x6)

### Note

Short form: dB. Maths trap: the decibel scale is not like a ruler — adding 10 dB means about ten times more sound energy and sounds roughly twice as loud, so 80 dB is much more than «a bit» louder than 70 dB.

## On Mova

- [Trees and pragmatics of «decibel» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/D/decibel/): every meaning and example parsed by Mova, with its dependency tree and frames.
- [«decibel» in the school dictionary](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/dictionaries/school/w/decibel.html) on Mova free.