Read along with the three podcasts, or open the full dictionary entry for Voices for the definition, Arabic meaning, synonyms and example sentences.
Narrator: Today's word is "voices" — the plural of 'voice', and a verb form, pronounced /ˈvɔɪ.sɪz/, with the stress on the first syllable.
Narrator: Voices are the sounds people make when speaking or singing — and, figuratively, the opinions or views people hold.
Narrator: In plain English, voices can be literal — 'I heard voices outside' — or figurative — 'the voices of the people'.
Narrator: It often means perspectives — 'many voices in the debate', meaning many different points of view.
Narrator: As a verb, 'voices' means expresses — 'she voices her concerns clearly', the third-person form of 'voice'.
Narrator: The word comes from 'voice', from the Latin 'vox', meaning voice — the root of 'vocal' and 'vocabulary'.
Narrator: From the literal sound, it grew to mean expressed views, then the very idea of representation — having a voice.
Narrator: In tone it ranges from everyday and literal to powerful and figurative — the voices of a community, a movement.
Narrator: So remember: voices are the sounds we speak with — and, figuratively, the many views and perspectives people hold.
Speaker A: I could hear voices in the next room — turned out it was just the radio left on.
Speaker B: Ha, classic. That's the literal sense — voices, the sounds of people speaking.
Speaker A: Exactly. Though at work we talk about hearing all the voices in a decision.
Speaker B: Right — there it's figurative, meaning everyone's views and perspectives.
Speaker A: Yes. A common mistake is mixing up 'voices' the noun with 'voices' the verb.
Speaker B: Ah — 'the voices agreed' is the noun, but 'she voices an idea' is the verb.
Speaker A: Exactly. One's a thing, the other's an action — expressing.
Speaker B: Good catch. And there's that lovely sense of giving people a voice.
Speaker A: Yes — being heard. Close synonyms? For views, 'opinions' and 'perspectives'.
Speaker B: Though 'opinions' are just held, while 'voices' suggests they're expressed and heard.
Speaker A: So voices are sounds — and views expressed.
Speaker B: Many people, many perspectives.
Speaker B: Let's use "voices" in AI prompts — it is powerful for gathering perspectives, multiple inputs, and representation: collecting views, balancing voices, hearing everyone.
Speaker A: So voices in a prompt means gathering and balancing many perspectives?
Speaker B: Exactly. For a community feature, you'd write:
Prompt: Build a discussion board that gives all voices room. Let users post views, upvote others, and surface diverse voices fairly, so popular and quiet voices are both seen rather than one loud group drowning the rest.
Speaker B: The word voices keeps it inclusive — many perspectives heard, not just the loudest.
Speaker A: Thoughtful. What about a review summary?
Speaker B: Try this:
Prompt: Summarise my product reviews by gathering the key voices. Group the customer voices into themes — praise, complaints, requests — so I hear the main voices clearly instead of reading a thousand reviews one by one.
Speaker A: So it distils many views.
Speaker B: Right. For a voting tool:
Prompt: Design a polling app that captures voices fairly. Let people vote and add a short comment, then show results alongside the strongest voices behind each option, so the numbers and the human voices both come through.
Speaker A: What about a dashboard?
Speaker B: Here you go:
Prompt: Build a feedback dashboard that tracks voices over time. Show which concerns the voices raise most each month, so the team follows the shifting voices of users and responds to what they're actually saying.
Speaker A: Could voices shape a multi-author feature too?
Speaker B: Yes:
Prompt: Add multi-author posts that keep distinct voices. Let each contributor's section show their name and tone, so readers hear several voices in one article rather than a single flattened, anonymous one.
Speaker A: So "voices" means many perspectives gathered and heard.
Speaker B: Exactly — an inclusive word that makes the AI balance everyone's views.
Voices — meaning in Arabic & definition More V courses GL Dictionary