phonetically

American  

[fuh-net-ik-lee] / fəˈnɛt ɪk li /

adverb

1. involving the sounds, production, or transcription of speech.

   Many children learn to read phonetically, by sounding out the letters of each word.

   Peas and beans are linked phonetically not only by the repeated vowel sound, but also by the initial consonants—the sounds p and b are both produced in the same way.

2. according to the way something is pronounced.

   When he has to write words he doesn’t know, Jabez gets his point across by spelling phonetically.

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Other Word Forms

• nonphonetically adverb
• unphonetically adverb

Etymology

Origin of phonetically

phonetic ( def. ) + -ally ( def. )

Example Sentences

Many of the names were written phonetically, she said, which often resulted in misspellings.

From New York Times

Titled “Chant,” it’s a neon sun with the features of a woman and the uprising’s slogan, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” beamed around it in English, Farsi, and phonetically spelled Farsi.

From New York Times

Topol, who by his own account, knew “about 50 words of English” then, had learned the songs phonetically from the Broadway cast album.

From New York Times

Even for those she didn’t have time to coach, she’d break a line down phonetically in an email and attach a recording of herself speaking it.

From Los Angeles Times

Uy’s last name, from his Chinese dad, is pronounced phonetically as “We.”

From Washington Post