hoarse

/hɔrs/

/hɔs/

Other forms: hoarser; hoarsest

A hoarse voice is deep and rough and kind of hard to make out. People get hoarse when they're sick, or when they are calling in sick to work.

If you're supposed to perform in a play tonight, you'd better hope you don't get hoarse: a hoarse voice doesn't sound the way it should. It's scratchy, gruff, and hard to understand. Sometimes people get hoarse from talking too much. Inhaling smoke can make you hoarse too. On the other hand, some people have raspy, husky, rough-sounding voices that sound hoarse all the time. You could ask them, "Are you hoarse?" They might say, "Nah, I always sound like this."

Definitions of hoarse

1. adjective

   deep and harsh sounding as if from shouting or illness or emotion
   “hoarse cries”

   synonyms: gruff, husky

   cacophonic, cacophonous

   having an unpleasant sound