nnnnn.

n.  a slurred sound, as spoken by an inebriated person trying to comprehend the meaning of a question.

<“Why don’t we go for a walk?  Get some fresh air?”  “Nnnnn ... walk?” —MaryJanice Davidson, Cravings.>

n.  a sound for babies to imitate as they learn to talk, as discussed in Rookie Dad: Fun and Easy Exercises and Games for Dads and Babies in Their First Year by Susan Fox.


n.  a sudden snore made by someone “dead drunk” (Alan Temperley, Harry and the Wrinklies).


n.  the muttering of someone paralyzed by fear, as in the novel Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett; see also dddrrr.


n.  the ominous whining of an elevator in a high-rise.

<The hall is resonant with the sound of elevators.  They are whining in the black hollow shaft, an ominous nnnnn from the throat of the building.  —Leonard Michaels, Time Out of Mind: The Diaries of Leonard Michaels, 1961-1995.>

n.  the sound of a “choking voice,” as from a man “cruelly bound and gagged” with his neck “tied to the bottom of a drainpipe” (Alan Temperley, Ragboy).


n.  the sound of the letter n; see also nnn, nnnn, NNNN, nnnnnn, nnnnnnn.

<Doro had to ask as she did not know any “nnnnn” words.  It turned out that [five-year-old] Sam said “naked body” [in his classroom].  —Barbara Bush, Barbara Bush: A Memoir.>

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