语音学中，将发音时声带振动的音称为浊音（又称有声），声带不振动的音称为清音（又称无声）。辅音（辅音）有清有浊，而多数语言中元音（元音）均为浊音，鼻音、边音、半元音也是浊音。

普通话以及多数汉语方言没有浊的塞音、塞擦音和擦音。汉语拼音p [pʰ]（ㄆ）和b [p]（ㄅ）均为清音，其分别在于送气（aspirated）与不送气（unaspirated），是两个音位（phoneme）。法语、西班牙语等拉丁语族语言中，pin的p是不送气清辅音，bin的b是不送气浊辅音，以汉语为母语的人通常听不出有什么区别，但是拉丁语族语言为母语的人则分得很清楚。反之，他们也无法分辨汉语中“波、得、哥”和“坡、特、科”的差别。英语、德语等日耳曼语族则相反，以英语为母语的人分不清去掉s的spin（清不送气）和bin（浊不送气）的区别，这是因为英语的浊音实际上是残留音素，差别较送气而言过于狭小，是送气对立，沿用清辅音、浊辅音的名称只是因为历史原因。

Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless (unvoiced) or voiced.

The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts.

At the articulatory level, a voiced sound is one in which the vocal cords vibrate, and a voiceless sound is one in which they do not. For example, voicing accounts for the difference between the pair of sounds associated with the English letters "s" and "z". The two sounds are transcribed as [s] and [z] to distinguish them from the English letters, which have several possible pronunciations depending on context. If one places the fingers on the voice box (i.e. the location of the Adam's apple in the upper throat), one can feel a vibration when one pronounces zzzz, but not when one pronounces ssss. (For a more detailed, technical explanation, see modal voice and phonation.) In most European languages, with a notable exception being Icelandic, vowels and other sonorants (consonants such as m, n, l, and r) are modally voiced.