a sound carried through the air: most often the voice of a speaker, but also any noise the ear takes in
At its core this word names sound as something heard. The same word covers a person calling out, an animal's cry, the blast of a trumpet, the rush of wind, the crash of thunder, and the playing of an instrument. Greek did not split these into separate words the way English splits voice from noise, so the one word stretches across the whole range and context decides which end of it is in view.
Most often it is a voice, and very often a voice raised loud: people shout it, cry it out, lift it up in grief or joy or appeal. From there it reaches naturally to the voice that comes from heaven at decisive moments, where the point is that a real, audible declaration breaks in from God. At the other end it is plain noise with no words behind it at all, which is why a writer can ask whether a trumpet or a harp is making a clear enough sound to be understood.
The word can also slide toward the idea of a whole way of speaking, a language or tongue, since a language is in the end a system of meaningful sounds. Paul uses it that way when he says the world is full of many kinds of these, and none is without meaning.