Audio refers to sound, especially when it's recorded, transmitted, or played back through electronic equipment. When you listen to music through headphones, watch a movie, or hear a podcast, you're experiencing audio.

Audio is everywhere in modern life. Your teacher might use an audio recording to play a historical speech. A video game designer creates audio effects for explosions and footsteps. Musicians work in studios to get the perfect audio quality for their songs. When something goes wrong with a computer's speakers, you might say there's an audio problem.

The word distinguishes sound from visual elements. A film has both video (what you see) and audio (what you hear). An audiobook lets you hear a story read aloud instead of reading it yourself. Audio equipment includes microphones, speakers, headphones, and mixing boards.

People who work with audio professionally are called audio engineers or sound engineers. They make sure dialogue in movies sounds clear, music in concerts sounds balanced, and voices on the radio come through crisply. Good audio can make the difference between a confusing mess and a crystal-clear experience.

As an adjective, audio describes anything related to sound, like audio settings or an audio track.