Link Centre Dictionary

vowel

vo·wel

UK/ˈvaʊ.əl/ US/vaʊl/ uncommon

noun

1.

a speech sound made with the vocal tract open

Synonyms
Antonyms
2.

Origin

From Middle English vowel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal and vocalis.

Phrases

  • back vowel
  • cardinal vowel
  • dark vowel
  • echo vowel
  • front vowel
  • full vowel
  • gliding vowel
  • half-long vowel

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.