phonetic alphabet

American  

noun

1. an alphabet containing a separate character for each distinguishable speech sound.

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phonetic alphabet British  

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

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Etymology

Origin of phonetic alphabet

First recorded in 1860–65

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

phonetic alphabet

They say they have found four basic components they think make up this phonetic alphabet.

From Seattle Times ● May 7, 2024

Other peoples provided the Greeks with crucial technological advances; they learned the phonetic alphabet from the Phoenicians, and how to mint coins from the Lydians.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 20, 2015

During World War II, Dr. Abrams worked at an acoustic laboratory at Harvard, helping develop a phonetic alphabet that could be heard by soldiers amid the din of battle.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2015

But Denise Sabet, the vice general manager at Labbrand, suggests the reasons include cultural differences and the Chinese reliance on characters for words, rather than a phonetic alphabet.

From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2011

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

From Chips From A German Workshop - Volume I Essays on the Science of Religion by Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max)