Words / Q / General

quaver

verb/ˈkweɪvə/

B2CEFR level
55/100Rarity: uncommon
LiteraryRegister

To speak or sing in a trembling, unsteady voice.

Her voice began to quaver as she read out the names of the fallen.

Similar: tremble, waver

Origin: From Middle English quaven 'to tremble', of imitative origin.

Topic: trembling voice in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: trembling voice