formant

noun

for·​mant ˈfȯr-mənt 

-ˌmant

: a characteristic component of the quality of a speech sound

specifically : any of several resonance bands held to determine the phonetic quality of a vowel

Examples of formant in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

These measurements vary systematically from person to person — in skull base angle, maxillary depth and pharyngeal cavity volume — and that even small structural differences produce perceptible shifts in the formant signature a voice carries. — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 21 May 2026

And formants, more than any other single acoustic feature, are what make a voice recognizable. — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 21 May 2026

The frequencies that survive this filtering process, the ones that emerge from your mouth with the most energy, are called formants. — Scott Travers, Forbes.com, 21 May 2026

But when these were compared with benchmark expectations for Canadian English F1 and F2 formants, US hockey players came close but fell just a bit short of the mark. — Ashley Belanger, Ars Technica, 16 May 2024

The thumb controlled the formant (that is, the amplitude peak in the spectrum that distinguishes the instrument’s timbre), the index finger controlled the waveform using a circular grid, and the three remaining fingers controlled the periodicity. — IEEE Spectrum, 1 Feb. 2024

The first two formants, F1 and F2, are instrumental in being able to tell the different vowels apart. — Fidel Martinez, latimes.com, 16 May 2018

So that means that when the pitch of the recording is shifted, the formants remain unaffected. — Rachel Gutman, The Atlantic, 15 May 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1901, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for formant

• dormant
• informant