phonogram

American  

[foh-nuh-gram] / ˈfoʊ nəˌgræm /

noun

1. Linguistics. a symbol that represents a speech sound, syllable, or other sequence of speech sounds without reference to meaning, such as a letter in the Latin alphabet.

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phonogram British  

/ ˈfəʊnəˌɡræm /

noun

1. any written symbol standing for a sound, syllable, morpheme, or word

2. a sequence of written symbols having the same sound in a variety of different words, for example, ough in bought, ought, and brought

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Other Word Forms

• phonogramic
  adjective
• phonogrammic
  adjective
• phonogramically
  adverb
• phonogrammically
  adverb

Etymology

Origin of phonogram

First recorded in 1855–60; phono- + -gram ¹

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

phonogram

The musical accompaniment is provided by a recorded phonogram synthesizer.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 14, 2021

Some ten years after the late Thomas Alva Edison first recorded the human voice* on tinfoil in 1877, he sent the foregoing jingly "phonogram," on a wax cylinder, to Colonel George E. Gouraud in London.

From Time Magazine Archive

Like Ampere, too, he was noted for a memory which retained many of the facts thus impressed upon it, as the sounds are printed on a phonogram.

From Heroes of the Telegraph by Munro, John

Speaking was represented by a phonogram containing a dialogue between Mr. Edison and Colonel Gouraud which had been imprinted some three weeks before in America.

From Heroes of the Telegraph by Munro, John

Also, if a sign had more than one value, a phonogram would be added to indicate which of its values was intended: thus in is św, “he,” but in it is śtn, “king.”

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 1 "Edwardes" to "Ehrenbreitstein" by Various