vocalize

especially British, vo·cal·ise

[voh-kuh-lahyz]

verb (used with object)

vocalized, vocalizing 

1. to make vocal; utter; articulate; sing.

2. to endow with a voice; cause to utter.

3. Phonetics.

   1. to voice.

   2. to change into a vowel (consonantalize ).

4. (of Hebrew, Arabic, and other writing systems that do not usually indicate vowels) to furnish with vowels or vowel points.

verb (used without object)

vocalized, vocalizing 

1. to use the voice, as in speech or song.

2. to sing without uttering words, especially to warm up the voice, practice vowel sounds, etc., before a performance.

3. to sing scales, arpeggios, trills, or the like, usually to a solmization syllable or a vowel sound.

4. Phonetics.,  to become changed into a vowel.

vocalize

/ ˈvəʊkəˌlaɪz /

verb

1. to express with or use the voice; articulate (a speech, song, etc)

2. (tr) to make vocal or articulate

3. (tr) phonetics

   1. to articulate (a speech sound) with voice

   2. to change (a consonant) into a vowel

4. another word for vowelize

5. (intr) to sing a melody on a vowel, etc

Other Word Forms

• vocalization noun
• vocalizer noun
• misvocalization noun
• nonvocalization noun
• subvocalize verb
• unvocalized adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of vocalize¹

First recorded in 1660–70; vocal + -ize

Example Sentences

I wouldn’t pay to hear her read the proverbial phone book, but I might shell out to hear her sing it, while cracking jokes in between vocalizing.

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But they rarely actually vocalized it to one another.

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Her lovely, ethereal vocalizing briefly infuses the show with the heart and soulful spirit that is conspicuously absent from Mr. Coen’s writing.

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While he was in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, Khawaja was moved by an essay that argued that fish suffer inhumane deaths because they cannot vocalize pain.

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Now, a 38-year-old father of two, he starts vocalizing as he plays, sometimes forming words, but always in a soothing harmony.

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