phonetic alphabet

See synonyms for phonetic alphabet on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. an alphabet containing a separate character for each distinguishable speech sound.

Origin of phonetic alphabet

1
First recorded in 1860–65

Words Nearby phonetic alphabet

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use phonetic alphabet in a sentence

  • It is evident that the use of a phonetic alphabet will make havoc of the ordinary spelling to be learnt subsequently.

  • The use of a phonetic alphabet is the only way to perform this double work rapidly, rationally, and with the minimum of confusion.

  • But how was this to be effected with a language which, like Chinese, had no phonetic alphabet?

  • They gave the phonetic alphabet to mankind and it seems not unlikely the knowledge of iron as well.

    Ancient Society | Lewis Henry Morgan
  • It is interesting as one of the stages of an art which culminated in the invention of a phonetic alphabet.

    Ancient Society | Lewis Henry Morgan

British Dictionary definitions for phonetic alphabet

phonetic alphabet

noun
  1. a list of the words used in communications to represent the letters of the alphabet, as in E for Echo, T for Tango

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