noise

1. (uncountable) Various sounds, usually unwanted or unpleasant.Examples: "He knew that it was trash day, when the garbage collectors made all the noise."; "The heavens turn about in a most rapid motion without noise to us perceived."; "Charles had not been employed above six months at Darracott Place, but he was not such a whopstraw as to make the least noise in the performance of his duties when his lordship was out of humour."Synonyms: sounduncountable

2. (technology) Any part of a signal or data that reduces the clarity, precision, or quality of the desired output.Examples: "signal-to-noise ratio"; "On the technical side, the scanning and OCR of texts, in combination with the graphic design of high school text books, introduced a certain level of noise into the corpus which in turn led to a higher tagging error rate than usual and may affect count precision."countableuncountable

3. (statistics) Variation or deviation generated by random fluctuations.countableuncountable

4. (figurative, by extension) Unwanted fuss or bustle; useless activity.Examples: "In order to provide coherence and confidence, the leader must dramatically turn down the noise level in the organization, eliminate any unnecessary distractions that inevitably get in the way of execution, and banish the fear of uncertainty."broadlycountablefigurativelyuncountable

5. (genetics) The measured level of variation in gene expression among cells, regardless of source, within a supposedly identical population.countableuncountable

6. (informal) Speech that is suggestive of an attitude or opinion.Examples: "Despite encouraging noises made by politicians from time to time, the two sides there have never been further from an agreement."countableinformaluncountable