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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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for phonetically
Contemporary Examples
Kanji are a system of Japanese writing using Chinese characters to phonetically represent names.
Historical Examples
Various attempts appear to have been made to represent this phonetically.
Diary of Samuel Pepys, CompleteSamuel Pepys
I have not the least idea of their meaning; so I have only been able to render them phonetically.
The Club of Queer TradesG. K. Chesterton
Phonetically spelt, they might lose the last traces of any such story.
All Things ConsideredG. K. Chesterton
Poking a young bird was sufficient to elicit this sound, phonetically a nasal peek.
Again, many of the signs have more than one syllabic value, and they may be used as ideograms as well as phonetically.
Myths & Legends of Babylonia & AssyriaLewis Spence
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
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for phonetically
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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