phonetics
the science or study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and reception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription.: Compare acoustic phonetics, articulatory phonetics, auditory phonetics, physiological phonetics.
the symbols used to represent the speech sounds of a language.
Compare Meanings
Click for a side-by-side comparison of meanings. Use the word comparison feature to learn the differences between similar and commonly confused words.
Origin of phonetics
1Words Nearby phonetics
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use phonetics in a sentence
It was a small step in learning to stick to my guns, but a leap in my comprehension of phonetics.
Almost all French speakers have to do a serious amount of self-study to become conversant, especially when it comes to phonetics.
My endeavour has been to put things very simply, and to make the beginner in phonetics hear for himself.
The Sounds of Spoken English | Walter RippmannModern writers in their zeal for phonetics seem to have lost their sense of proportion.
The Outline of History: Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind | Herbert George WellsTheir influence reaches far beyond the proper sphere of phonetics and invades that of morphology, as we shall see.
Language | Edward Sapir
In phonetics, as in vocabulary, we must be careful not to exaggerate the importance of interlinguistic influences.
Language | Edward SapirShe isn't sorry to tally the pet (whose phonetics we employ) "dest wunced round the p on her soulders, only zis wunced."
Somehow Good | William de Morgan
British Dictionary definitions for phonetics
/ (fəˈnɛtɪks) /
(functioning as singular) the science concerned with the study of speech processes, including the production, perception, and analysis of speech sounds from both an acoustic and a physiological point of view. This science, though capable of being applied to language studies, technically excludes linguistic considerations: Compare phonology
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
Browse