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The Greek herald Stentor was known for having a voice that came through loud and clear. In fact, in the Iliad, Homer described Stentor as a man whose voice was as loud as that of fifty men together. Stentor's powerful voice made him a natural choice for delivering announcements and proclamations to the assembled Greek army during the Trojan War, and it also made his name a byword for any person with a loud, strong voice. Both the noun stentor and the related adjective stentorian pay homage to the big-voiced warrior, and both have been making noise in English since the early 17th century.
Examples of stentorian in a Sentence
Ross Scarano, New York Times, 15 May 2025
Cox has always been a mild, slightly dull Daredevil; D’Onofrio’s hulking, stentorian presence as Fisk was entertaining in the early seasons but has settled into a rut.
—Mike Hale, New York Times, 5 Mar. 2025
Smith is fantastic and terrifying as Mrs. Medlock in The Secret Garden, the stentorian nurse and housekeeper whose domineering overcautiousness feeds into all the self-pitying inclinations of her poor weakling charge Colin Craven.
—Kathryn Vanarendonk, Vulture, 27 Sep. 2024
Gone is the grave, stentorian tone of Biden’s news releases.
—Ezra Klein, The Mercury News, 14 Aug. 2024
See All Example Sentences for stentorian
Cite this Entry
“Stentorian.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stentorian. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
Copy CitationKids Definition
stentorian
adjective
from Stentōr, a Greek messenger at the time of the Trojan War noted for having a very loud voice
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