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patency

American  
[peyt-n-see, pat-] / ˈpeɪt n si, ˈpæt- /

noun

  1. the state of being patent.

  2. Medicine/Medical. the condition of not being blocked or obstructed.

  3. Phonetics. openness of articulation, found more or less in all phonemes except stops.

patency British  
/ ˈpeɪtənsɪ /

noun

  1. the condition of being obvious

  2. the state of a bodily passage, duct, etc, of being open or unobstructed

  3. phonetics the degree to which the vocal tract remains unobstructed in the articulation of a speech sound See also closure

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of patency

First recorded in 1650–60; pat(ent) + -ency

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.