phonesthemic

American

[foh-nuhs-thee-mik] / ˌfoʊ nəsˈθi mɪk /

adjective

Linguistics.

(of a speech sound) shared by a set of echoic or symbolic words, as the sn- of sneer, snarl, snatch, snide, snitch, snoop, etc.

phonestheme such a sound or group of sounds (coined by J. R. Firth in 1930; apparently phon- + (a)esth(etic) + -eme ) + -ic

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