inaudibilis

Inaudibilis is a Latin adjective meaning "inaudible" or "not able to be heard." It describes something that cannot be perceived by the sense of hearing. This can be due to a variety of reasons, such as the sound being too faint, too high or low in frequency for human hearing, or being masked by other louder sounds.

The concept of inaudibility is relevant in several fields. In acoustics, it relates to the threshold of human hearing, which varies from person to person and with age. Frequencies outside the range of approximately 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz are generally considered inaudible to most humans, though some animals can perceive much higher or lower frequencies. In communication, a message might be inaudible if the speaker is too far away, speaking too softly, or if there is significant background noise.

In a more metaphorical sense, "inaudibilis" can also refer to things that are not heard or acknowledged in a broader societal context, such as unheard pleas or silent suffering. However, the primary and most common usage of the term pertains to the physical limitations of auditory perception. The opposite of inaudibilis is audibilis, meaning audible or able to be heard.