Db

Unit for measuring the relative intensities of sounds or the relative amounts of acoustic or electric power. Because it requires about a tenfold increase in power for a sound to register twice as loud to the human ear, a logarithmic scale is useful for comparing sound intensity. Thus, the threshold of human hearing (absolute silence) is assigned the value of 0 dB and each increase of 10 dB corresponds to a tenfold increase in intensity and a doubling in loudness. The “threshold of pain” for intensity varies from 120 to 130 dB among different individuals. A related unit is the bel = 10 dB.

Learn more about decibel (dB) with a free trial on Britannica.com.

DB may stand for:

In science and technology:

• dB Decibel, a logarithmic unit of measurement in acoustics and electronics
• Db Dubnium, a chemical element
• DB connector, a size of D-subminiature electrical connector
• .db, a database file extension

In entertainment:

• Daily Bugle, a fictional New York City newspaper
• The dB's, a power pop band from the 1980s

In locations:

• Discovery Bay, a residential development in Hong Kong
• Dobyns Bennett High School, a high school in Kingsport, Tennessee, USA

In corporate:

• DB Breweries, a New Zealand company
• DB (car), a French automobile maker
• DB Medialab, a Norwegian online media company owned by the newspaper Dagbladet
• DB Records, a label in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Deutsche Bahn, the major German railway company
• Deutsche Bank, a German bank
• Deutsche Bundesbahn, the national railway company of the former West Germany

In phonetics:

• ȸ, the db-digraph a ligature of "d" and "b" in African linguistics

See also

• Dragon Ball, a Japanese media franchise
• DBMS or database management system