formant

American  

[fawr-muhnt] / ˈfɔr mənt /

noun

1. Music. the range and number of partials present in a tone of a specific instrument, representing its timbre.

2. Acoustic Phonetics. one of the regions of concentration of energy, prominent on a sound spectrogram, that collectively constitute the frequency spectrum of a speech sound. The relative positioning of the first and second formants, whether periodic or aperiodic, as of the o of hope at approximately 500 and 900 cycles per second, is usually sufficient to distinguish a sound from all others.

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formant British  

/ ˈfɔːmənt /

noun

1. acoustics phonetics any of several frequency ranges within which the partials of a sound, esp a vowel sound, are at their strongest, thus imparting to the sound its own special quality, tone colour, or timbre

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Etymology

Origin of formant

1900–05; < Latin formant- (stem of formāns ), present participle of formāre to form; see -ant

Example Sentences

Second, they determined whether the formant frequencies were predictive of dominance, number of successful copulations, and number of offspring sired.

From Scientific American • Dec. 6, 2012

Given the widespread association of formant frequency with mating success in both placental mammals as well as marsupials, it is possible that these preferences emerged quite early in the evolution of the mammalian clade.

From Scientific American • Dec. 6, 2012

In the future, Wyman and her colleagues plan on using auditory playback experiments to determine whether the effect of formant frequencies on mating success is primarily driven by male competition or by female choice.

From Scientific American • Dec. 6, 2012

"Quadros will follow an independent policy in international relations," ventured one such in formant.

From Time Magazine Archive

Acrostiches formant le nom de Giles du Wes, 893, 1017.

From An Introductorie for to Lerne to Read, To Pronounce, and to Speke French Trewly by Du Wés, Giles