Millibel

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A unit of sound measurement equal to one-thousandth of a decibel, used to express very small differences in sound intensity or power levels
2. A minute division in acoustic measurement representing 0.001 decibel increments, typically applied in precise audio engineering contexts
3. A fractional decibel unit signifying one part per thousand of a decibel, commonly employed to quantify subtle variations in noise or signal strength

Etymology: The base unit, the bel, was named after Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, to honour his work on telephone transmission. Engineers used it on a logarithmic scale, where each bel marked a tenfold change in power, but a whole bel proved too coarse for everyday measurement. The decibel, a tenth of a bel, came from the Latin prefix "decimus", meaning tenth. The millibel takes the prefix "milli-", from Latin "mille", meaning thousand, so it is one thousandth of a bel. That makes it one hundredth of a decibel, not one thousandth of a decibel as the definition given here says.

Synonyms: millidB, thousandth of a bel, milli bel