phonic

[fon-ik, foh-nik]

adjective

1. of or relating to speech sounds.

Other Word Forms

• phonically adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of phonic¹

First recorded in 1815–25; phon- + -ic

Example Sentences

His team’s series of experiments showed that whales produce their wide repertoire of sounds with the same organ — the phonic lips in their nose, which vibrate much like a larynx does in humans.

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They used video from an endoscope, a thin, tube-like instrument, to image the phonic lips in harbor porpoises and bottlenosed dolphins in captivity.

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They saw that the phonic lips would briefly separate and then collide back together, causing a tissue vibration that would release sound into the surrounding water.

Read more on New York Times

Research has also suggested dolphins produce echolocating clicks with the phonic lips on the right side of their head, meaning it could be advantageous if this side is kept nearer to the ocean floor.

Read more on The Guardian

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You revolve around the idea of phonic passing and “code switching”.

Read more on The Guardian

Related Words

• audiovisual 
• auditory 
• aural 
• neural 
• neurological 
• olfactory 
• sensual 
• sonic 
• tactile 
• visual