Plural of audible; in American football, signals called by the quarterback at the line of scrimmage to change the planned play.
From audible (able to be heard) used as a noun in sports, plus -s for plural. The term became standardized in football terminology in the 20th century.
When a quarterback calls an audible, they're using the oldest form of real-time strategy—the human voice—in a game that now costs billions and involves millions of data points, yet still depends on split-second verbal communication.
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