noun.
A unit used to express relative difference in power or intensity, usually between two acoustic or electric signals, equal to ten times the common logarithm of the ratio of the two levels.
noun.
A common measure of sound intensity that is one tenth of a bel on the logarithmic intensity scale. It is defined as dB = 10 * log10(P 1/P 2), where P1 and P2 are the relative powers of the sound.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun.
a logarithmic unit of sound intensity; 10 times the logarithm of the ratio of the sound intensity to some reference intensity
Word Usage
"A few years ago curiosity led me to sneak a decibel meter into a ballgame between the"