How to Use vocal folds in a Sentence

vocal folds

plural noun
  • There are two major joints that open and close the vocal folds.
    — Star Tribune, 21 July 2021
  • One called a pitch glide stretches and shortens the vocal folds.
    — Star Tribune, 21 July 2021
  • The vocal folds are short and thick and create a slow vibration.
    — Erica Tobolski, The Conversation, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Those vocal folds vibrate to create sounds like singing and speaking.
    — Korin Miller, Health.com, 21 June 2021
  • Humpback whales seem to produce sound largely with their vocal folds.
    — Matthew Hutson, The New Yorker, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Muscles in the vocal folds provide resistance to air in the lungs.
    — Jim Sullivan, Discover Magazine, 23 July 2015
  • In humans, vowels are produced by vocal folds, which vibrate fast.
    — Laura Baisas, Popular Science, 12 Nov. 2025
  • Hoarseness is usually a symptom of problems in the vocal folds of your larynx, aka your voice box.
    — Korin Miller, Health.com, 4 Nov. 2021
  • Ventricular folds, or false vocal folds, are located on top of the true vocal cords.
    — Zoe Sottile, CNN, 29 Nov. 2022
  • Unlike most species that have triangular vocal folds, lions and tigers were found to have flat, square folds that are around one inch thick.
    — Emily Toomey, Smithsonian, 19 July 2019
  • When it’s not being shifted around via computer program, the pitch of your voice depends on how thick and how tense your vocal folds are.
    — Rachel Gutman, The Atlantic, 15 May 2018
  • Chau’s team designed a small sensor that sits over the vocal folds, detecting vibration as intent.
    — Afdhel Aziz, Forbes.com, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Avoid Irritants Try to avoid anything that could irritate your throat or your vocal folds.
    — Sherri Gordon, Health, 1 Sep. 2024
  • Vocal cord surgeries often leave patients with stiff, scarred vocal folds that make speaking difficult.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 29 Oct. 2025
  • Humans vocalize by forcing air over the various structures of the vocal tract, including vocal folds, tongue and lips.
    — Patrick Traynor, The Conversation, 20 Sep. 2022
  • Doctors diagnosed her with paresis of the vocal folds, a muscular dysfunction.
    — New York Times, 21 Nov. 2019
  • The bats made low-frequency sounds through their false vocal folds, a part of the voice box not typically used by humans to speak or sing, Elemans said.
    — Praveena Somasundaram, Washington Post, 2 Dec. 2022
  • Researchers now think a pad of elastic tissue on the vocal folds, present only in roarers, explains the different vocalizations.
    — Elisa Neckar, Discover Magazine, 8 May 2018
  • From the baboon’s larynx and vocal folds, which is high up and close to their chin line, there’s just a short step up through the cavity called the pharynx, then a long way out the horizontal oral cavity.
    — Louis-Jean Boë, The Conversation, 11 Dec. 2019
  • One of the best and most immediate ways to change your voice is by placing it in a specific resonating area of the body – such as the sinuses or throat – or by changing how the vocal folds vibrate.
    — Erica Tobolski, The Conversation, 29 Apr. 2022
  • Surgeons in Kyoto implanted a titanium bridge between his vocal cords (also known as vocal folds) to keep them from pressing together.
    — James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024
  • Respiratory mucus serves to lubricate the vocal folds, and also filters out particulate debris like pollen, dander and smoke.
    — Jack Feerick, Discover Magazine, 10 Nov. 2020
  • In Howard’s apparatus, the loudspeaker acted as both lungs and vocal folds, approximating the pitch produced by a typical adult male’s body.
    — Sophie Bushwick, Scientific American, 23 Jan. 2020
  • Rocky's abilities prove that primates can manipulate their vocal folds at a fine scale to create distinct sounds, a key component for building up and using a complex vocabulary.
    — Nathaniel Scharping, Discover Magazine, 28 July 2016
  • New research published in Current Biology suggests that connective tissue masses are embedded in the vocal folds of the larynges of domestic cats.
    — Jorge Garay, WIRED, 31 Oct. 2023
  • As a musician, Holloway’s voice is inseparable from his identity and livelihood, and going on testosterone — which causes the vocal folds to thicken and lengthen, lowering pitch, while also enlarging the larynx — terrified him.
    — Leslie Katz, Forbes.com, 28 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'vocal folds.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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