sotto voce.

In a soft or lowered voice, often so that speech is not widely heard.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• say sotto voce
• speak sotto voce

On the page

She answered sotto voce while the chairman searched his notes.

He said her name sotto voce, as though the room might recognize it.

Usage notes

Primary category: sensory / description. Forms: Invariable adverbial phrase; no ordinary plural or tense forms. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings.