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phoneme
[ foh-neem ]
/ ˈfoʊ nim /
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noun Linguistics.
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.
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Compare distinctive feature (def. 1).
Origin of phoneme
First recorded in 1890–95; from French phonème, from Greek phṓnēma “sound,” equivalent to phōnē-, verbal stem of phōneîn “to make a sound” (derivative of phonḗ “sound, voice”) + -ma noun suffix denoting result of action
Words nearby phoneme
phone hacking, phone-in, phone-jack, phonematic, phonematics, phoneme, phonemic, phonemicize, phonemics, phonendoscope, phone phreak
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
How to use phoneme in a sentence
Some people think they couldn’t produce the same phonemes—the same sounds—that we can produce, but they could still produce many sounds.
There is also a phoneme of stress which has a very low contrastive function.
A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan|John U. Wolff
British Dictionary definitions for phoneme
phoneme
/ (ˈfəʊniːm) /
noun
linguistics 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
Word Origin for phoneme
C20: via French from Greek phōnēma sound, speech
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
Medical definitions for phoneme
phoneme
[ fō′nēm′ ]
n.
The smallest phonetic unit in a language that is capable of conveying a distinction in meaning, as the m of mat and the b of bat in English.
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.