phonology
Americannoun
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the study of the distribution and patterning of speech sounds in a language and of the tacit rules governing pronunciation.
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the phonological system or the body of phonological facts of a language.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of phonology
Explanation
Use the noun phonology to describe the study of the way sounds are used in a language and the rules for pronouncing certain words, like the silent t in the French-derived word debut. You're most likely to hear the word phonology in a college linguistics class, learning about how specific sounds are organized and used in various languages. You might hear the terms phonetics and phonemes in the same class, both of which have to do with sound, speech, language, and meaning. All these words have their roots in the Greek word for "voice," phone, and in the case of phonology, it is combined with the Greek suffix -logy, which means "study, science, or theory."
Vocabulary lists containing phonology
Common Senses: Phon ("Sound")
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The Mother Tongue
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phon (sound)
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The grammar is divided into three principal parts: Phonology, Morphology, and Syntax.
From First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1879-1880, Government Printing Office 1881 by Various
The Phonology is followed by an Accidence, which discusses the peculiarities of dialect grammar.
From English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Skeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
Phonology, fō-nol′ō-ji, n. the science of the sounds of the voice, the manner in which these are combined in any language: phonetics.—adj.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various
Much of the confusion of terms and indistinctness of principles, both in Ethnology and Phonology, are due to the combined study of these heterogeneous sciences.
From Critiques and Addresses by Huxley, Thomas Henry
In Phonology fifty different sounds are recognized, including simple and compound consonants, the vowels in different quantities, and the diphthongs.
From First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1879-1880, Government Printing Office 1881 by Various
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
