phonetic
[fuh-net-ik, foh-]
- Also pho·net·i·cal. of or relating to speech sounds, their production, or their transcription in written symbols.
- corresponding to pronunciation: phonetic transcription.
- agreeing with pronunciation: phonetic spelling.
- concerning or involving the discrimination of nondistinctive elements of a language. In English, certain phonological features, as length and aspiration, are phonetic but not phonemic.
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- (in Chinese writing) a written element that represents a sound and is used in combination with a radical to form a character.
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Origin of phonetic
1820–30; < New Latin phōnēticus < Greek phōnētikós vocal, equivalent to phōnēt(ós) to be spoken (verbid of phōneîn to speak) + -ikos -ic
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Examples from the Web for phonetical
Historical Examples
In some essays the writer makes extensive use of phonetical spelling.
A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv WritingsNoah Webster
phonetic
- of or relating to phonetics
- denoting any perceptible distinction between one speech sound and another, irrespective of whether the sounds are phonemes or allophonesCompare phonemic (def. 2)
- conforming to pronunciationphonetic spelling
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Word Origin
C19: from New Latin phōnēticus, from Greek phōnētikos, from phōnein to make sounds, speak
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for phonetical
phonetic
adj.
"representing vocal sounds," 1803, from Modern Latin phoneticus (1797), from Greek phonetikos "vocal," from phonetos "to be spoken, utterable," verbal adjective of phonein "to speak clearly, utter," from phone "sound, voice" (see fame (n.)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
phonetic
(fə-nĕt′ĭk)- Of or relating to phonetics.
- Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
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