Bleep

Part of speech: verb, noun

Definitions

1. A brief, high-pitched electronic tone made by a device ; to hide offensive speech on broadcast by covering it with such a tone
2. A short electronic beeping noise from a machine ; to censor a word or phrase on air by overlaying it with a tone
3. The quick, shrill electronic signal a gadget emits ; the act of muting profanity in a recording by substituting a beep

Etymology: "Bleep" is onomatopoeic, meaning its sound was imitated directly in the word itself. The short, high-pitched electronic tone it names is the kind of noise a device makes, and the word was built to mimic that noise rather than borrowed from another language or derived from an older English root. The verb sense grew naturally from the noun. To bleep something on broadcast is to cover offensive speech with that tone, so the sound becomes a way of silencing a word. Here the imitated noise does double duty: it both announces that something has been censored and hides what was said.

Synonyms: beep, buzz