0%

phoneme

pho·neme
P p

Transcription

    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • UK Pronunciation
    • UK IPA
    • [foh-neem]
    • /ˈfoʊ nim/
    • /ˈfəʊ.niːm/
    • US Pronunciation
    • US IPA
    • [foh-neem]
    • /ˈfoʊ nim/

Definitions of phoneme word

  • noun phoneme any of a small set of units, usually about 20 to 60 in number, and different for each language, considered to be the basic distinctive units of speech sound by which morphemes, words, and sentences are represented. They are arrived at for any given language by determining which differences in sound function to indicate a difference in meaning, so that in English the difference in sound and meaning between pit and bit is taken to indicate the existence of different labial phonemes, while the difference in sound between the unaspirated p of spun and the aspirated p of pun, since it is never the only distinguishing feature between two different words, is not taken as ground for setting up two different p phonemes in English. Compare distinctive feature (def 1). 1
  • noun phoneme speech sound 1
  • countable noun phoneme A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound which is significant in a language. 0
  • noun phoneme one of the set of speech sounds in any given language that serve to distinguish one word from another. A phoneme may consist of several phonetically distinct articulations, which are regarded as identical by native speakers, since one articulation may be substituted for another without any change of meaning. Thus /p/ and /b/ are separate phonemes in English because they distinguish such words as pet and bet, whereas the light and dark /l/ sounds in little are not separate phonemes since they may be transposed without changing meaning 0
  • noun phoneme a set of phonetically similar but slightly differing sounds in a language that are heard as the same sound by native speakers and are represented in phonemic transcription by the same symbol 0

Information block about the term

Origin of phoneme

First appearance:

before 1890
One of the 20% newest English words
1890-95; < French phonème < Greek phṓnēma sound, equivalent to phōnē-, verbid stem of phōneîn to make a sound (derivative of phonḗ sound, voice) + -ma noun suffix denoting result of action

Historical Comparancy

Parts of speech for Phoneme

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation

phoneme popularity

A common word. It’s meaning is known to most children of preschool age. About 81% of English native speakers know the meaning and use the word.
This word is included in each student's vocabulary. Most likely there is at least one movie with this word in the title.

phoneme usage trend in Literature

This diagram is provided by Google Ngram Viewer

Synonyms for phoneme

noun phoneme

  • characters — the aggregate of features and traits that form the individual nature of some person or thing.

Top questions with phoneme

  • what is a phoneme?
  • what is phoneme?
  • what is a phoneme in linguistics?
  • what is phoneme segmentation fluency?
  • what is the meaning of phoneme?
  • what does phoneme mean?
  • what is the definition of phoneme?
  • what is phoneme segmentation?
  • what is grapheme phoneme correspondence?
  • what is phoneme isolation?
  • what is a grapheme and phoneme?
  • what is a phoneme in phonics?
  • how to teach phoneme segmentation?
  • what is phoneme manipulation?
  • what is phoneme and grapheme?

See also

Matching words

Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?