vocal fry
noun phrase

- a speech habit involving lowering the voice at the ends of words or sentences by slowly vibrating the vocal cords

- a way of speaking in which the voice is very low-pitched and has a characteristic rough or creaking sound

McMillan Dictionaries / Oxford Languages

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PHRASE ORIGIN

"Vocal fry" refers to a specific vocal register (the lowest vocal register) in which the voice produces a creaky or rattly sound.

“Vocal” comes from the Latin vocalis, which pertains to the voice. Over time, "vocal" in English came to be associated with anything related to the voice or sound produced by the vocal cords.

The use of "fry" in this context doesn't directly relate to cooking or frying food. Instead, it metaphorically describes the crackly, sizzling sound one might associate with frying food.

Combined, "vocal fry" captures the essence of the sound: a voice that produces a low, crackly noise. It's worth noting that while this type of vocalization has always existed, it gained cultural and linguistic prominence in the early 21st century, especially in discussions about speech patterns in American English.

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THE SCIENCE OF VOCAL FRY

The vocal fry register is the lowest vocal register and is produced through a loose glottal closure that permits air to bubble through slowly with a popping or rattling sound of a very low frequency.

During this phonation, the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together, which causes the vocal folds to compress rather tightly and become relatively slack and compact. This process forms a large and irregularly vibrating mass within the vocal folds that produces the characteristic low popping or rattling sound when air passes through the glottal closure.

The register (if well controlled) can extend far below the modal voice register, in some cases up to 8 octaves lower, such as in the case of Tim Storms who holds the world record for lowest frequency note ever produced by a human, a G−7, which is only 0.189 Hz, inaudible to the human ear

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SYNONYMS

creak, croak, glottal fry, glottal rattle, glottal scrape, laryngealization, popcorning, pulse phonation, pulse register, strohbass, VOCAL FRY

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today:

“A problem with VOCAL FRY is that it can cause speakers to come across as being untrustworthy and less competent.”

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