articulation

American  

[ahr-tik-yuh-ley-shuhn] / ɑrˌtɪk jəˈleɪ ʃən /

noun

articulations plural

1. an act or the process of articulating.

   the articulation of a form;

   the articulation of a new thought.

2. Phonetics.

   1. the act or process of articulating speech.

   2. the adjustments and movements of speech organs involved in pronouncing a particular sound, taken as a whole.

   3. any one of these adjustments and movements.

   4. any speech sound, especially a consonant.

3. the act of jointing.

4. a jointed state or formation; a joint.

5. Botany.

   1. a joint or place between two parts where separation may take place spontaneously, as at the point of attachment of a leaf.

   2. a node in a stem, or the space between two nodes.

6. Anatomy, Zoology. a joint, as the joining or juncture of bones or of the movable segments of an arthropod.

7. Dentistry.

   1. the positioning of teeth in a denture, usually on an articulator, for correct occlusion.

   2. the bringing of opposing tooth surfaces into contact with each other.

   3. the relations of the upper and lower natural or artificial teeth in occlusion.

8. a measure of the effectiveness of a telephonic transmission system in reproducing speech comprehensibly, expressed as the percentage of speech units uttered that is correctly understood.

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articulation British  

/ ɑːˌtɪkjʊˈleɪʃən /

noun

1. the act or process of speaking or expressing in words

2. 1. the process of articulating a speech sound

   2. the sound so produced, esp a consonant

3. the act or the state of being jointed together

4. the form or manner in which something is jointed

5. zoology

   1. a joint such as that between bones or arthropod segments

   2. the way in which jointed parts are connected

6. botany the part of a plant at which natural separation occurs, such as the joint between leaf and stem

7. a joint or jointing

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articulation Scientific  

/ är-tĭk′yə-lā′shən /

1. The arrangement of parts connected by joints.

2. A fixed or movable joint between bones.

3. A movable joint between inflexible parts of the body of an animal, as the divisions of an appendage in arthropods.

4. A joint between two separable parts, as a leaf and a stem.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• misarticulation
  noun
• rearticulation
  noun
• subarticulation
  noun
• articulatory
  adjective
• unarticulatory
  adjective
• articulatorily
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• articulations
  plural

Etymology

Origin of articulation

First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English articulacio(u)n, from Middle French, from Latin articulātiōn-, stem of articulātiō “division into distinct parts,” from articulāt(us) “divided into distinct parts” + -iō noun suffix; see articulate -ion

Explanation

Articulation is the act of expressing something in a coherent verbal form, or an aspect of pronunciation involving the articulatory organs. Articulation comes from the Latin word for "jointed" or "divided into joints." So it makes sense that the word's original definition described movement at a joint, as in the articulation of your fingers while you're typing. (The joints themselves can also be called articulations.) This noun also describes the act of joining things in such a way that makes motion possible.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

articulation articulations

“The extreme amongst the vulgar in London doubtlessly is, to omit the r altogether—to convert far into fah, hard into hahd, cord into cawd,” wrote Benjamin Smart, an articulation expert, in 1836.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026

If you’ve ever skied in the afternoon light, when it’s difficult to see any articulation in the slope, just white everywhere you look, you can understand how having those points of reference would be helpful.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2026

But he was moved so deeply by what he was reading—so enthralled by the man’s articulation of that nation’s ideals—that he’d devote the rest of his life to studying them both.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

One of the key challenges that the doctrine poses to regulatory governance is its malleability, thanks to the high court’s poor articulation of the philosophy’s scope and application.

From Slate ● Jun. 13, 2025

When notes are slurred, only the first note under each slur marking has a definite articulation at the beginning.

From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones

Much of Mr. Roberts’s movement for that quartet of dancers, despite some upper-body torsioning and unison pacings, presents repeated articulations for their arms, suggesting the flapping of wings, which grows monotonous.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2025

The researchers envision stringing together even more actuators in parallel arrays so they can produce both very fine and very forceful articulations on the macro scale.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2023

Concertmaster Nurit Bar-Josef’s playing was especially beautiful in its aching solo stretches, her articulations brimming with character, as well as the suite’s thrilling closing climb.

From Washington Post ● Jun. 3, 2022

It is a sentence that plainly communicates the articulations of class and respectability that are mapped on both young men, designating the contrasting boundaries of each boy’s disposability.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2022

She wouldn’t eat and she wouldn’t drink and her fat little belly shriveled up against her spine, and even her tail showed the articulations through the skin.

From "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck

Related Words

• diction