vowel

American  

[vou-uhl] / ˈvaʊ əl /

noun

• vowels
  plural

1. Phonetics.

   1. (in English articulation) a speech sound produced without occluding, diverting, or obstructing the flow of air from the lungs (opposed to consonant).

   2. (in a syllable) the sound of greatest sonority, as i in grill.

   3. (in linguistic function) a concept empirically determined as a phonological element in structural contrast with consonant, as the (ē) of be (bē), we (wē), and yeast (yēst).

2. a letter representing or usually representing a vowel, as, in English, a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes w and y.

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adjective

1. of or relating to a vowel.

vowel British  

/ ˈvaʊəl /

noun

1. phonetics a voiced speech sound whose articulation is characterized by the absence of friction-causing obstruction in the vocal tract, allowing the breath stream free passage. The timbre of a vowel is chiefly determined by the position of the tongue and the lips

2. a letter or character representing a vowel

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• vowel-less
  adjective
• vowel-like
  adjective
• vowelless
  adjective
• vowellike
  adjective
• vowelly
  adverb
• vowely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• vowels
  plural

Etymology

Origin of vowel

1275–1325; Middle English < Old French vowel < Latin vōcālis vocal

Explanation

Open your mouth and say “aaaaa.” There! You’ve just said a vowel. A vowel is a letter that represents an open sound. There are six vowels in the English language: a, e, i, o, u and sometimes y. Y is sometimes a vowel, as in the word story although it also sometimes acts as a consonant, as in the word yes. The vocal sounds represented by vowels are open and without friction. The word vowel comes from the Old French voieul, which is based on the Latin phrase littera vocalis, or "vocal letter," from the root word vox, or "voice."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

vowel vowels

But Team Italy didn’t want to add players, forward Nick Saracino said, “just because you have a vowel in your name.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 12, 2026

Even the word, beginning and ending with similar vowel qualities, evinces monotony.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2024

Llama 2 70b, which answered correctly 10% of the time, mistook the letter K for a vowel and so answered incorrectly.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024

In the Gluck rehearsal, Palumbo cautioned the group not to sit on one word’s final vowel, so that the next consonant could be more explosive.

From New York Times ● May 21, 2024

The sound of the last word, the way I draw out the vowel, makes me hear how much I wanted that.

From "Shouting at the Rain" by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

To go American, Mielewska said it's all about getting the Rs and the vowels right.

From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026

“The way he finishes notes, the way he slurs into notes, the way vowels sound, the choices of sounds he uses in the lyrics he writes—it’s just clever,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025

Her characters would crash down on consonants, as though landing a plane in the midst of an engine blowout or stretch out vowels in defiance of several laws of physics.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2024

They were prone to making simple mistakes, including basic addition errors and mistaking consonants for vowels, which led them to provide incorrect answers.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 5, 2024

It could not be a problem she ever encountered, with her educated upper-crust vowels, but being a Scot, she sympathized with any distrust of the soft Southern English.

From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein

Related Words

• articulate
• choral
• operatic
• verbal