phoneme

noun

pho·neme | \ ˈfō-ˌnēm

Definition of phoneme

: any of the abstract units of the phonetic system of a language that correspond to a set of similar speech sounds (such as the velar \k\ of cool and the palatal \k\ of keel) which are perceived to be a single distinctive sound in the language

Examples of phoneme in a Sentence

The sounds represented by “c” and “b” are different phonemes, as in the words “cat” and “bat.”

Recent Examples on the Web To build his dictation engine, Chen broke Mandarin down into its smallest elements, called phonemes. — Mara Hvistendahl, Wired, 18 May 2020 For languages that use phonemes, pictographs, or characters, all bets are off. — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 27 Feb. 2020 Some have contrasting tones while others do not; Japanese and Spanish have 25 phonemes (distinct units of sound) compared to 40 in English and Thai; and there are a few hundred distinct syllables in Japanese, versus almost 7,000 English. — Olivia Goldhill, Quartz, 8 Sep. 2019 While phonemes help convey meaning, speech-recognition software does not account for unintended repetitions of them, according to Rudzicz. — Kevin Wheeler, Curbed, 12 Dec. 2018 This involves breaking up speech samples into distinct sounds (known as phonemes) and then stitching them back together to form new words and sentences. — James Vincent, The Verge, 20 Nov. 2018 Ryabov suggests that the variation seen in these pulses represents the equivalent of phonemes, or words, and that the strings of pulses could reasonably be considered dolphin sentences. — National Geographic, 15 Sep. 2016 Next up, game mode challenges the child to identify certain letters, phonemes and pictures — such as asking for the picture that begins with a certain letter or letter sound. — Leander Kahney, WIRED, 12 Dec. 2002 The resultant voice, which is comprised of the person’s phonemes, or the distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another in each language, doesn’t sound even remotely computer-generated or made up. — Nick Bilton, The Hive, 26 Jan. 2017 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'phoneme.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

History and Etymology for phoneme

borrowed from French phonème, borrowed from Greek phōnēmat-, phṓnēma "sound made by a person or animal, utterance, speech, language," from phōnē-, variant stem of phōnéō, phoneîn "to speak, utter, (of animals) make a sound, (of instruments) sound" (derivative of phōnḗ "sound made by something living, voice, speech, utterance") + -mat-, -ma, resultative noun suffix — more at phono-

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Dictionary Entries Near phoneme

phonematics

phoneme

phonemic

Statistics for phoneme

Cite this Entry

“Phoneme.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phoneme. Accessed 15 Aug. 2022.

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More Definitions for phoneme

phoneme

noun

pho·neme | \ ˈfō-ˌnēm

Kids Definition of phoneme

: one of the smallest units of speech that distinguish one utterance from another

phoneme

noun

pho·neme | \ ˈfō-ˌnēm

Medical Definition of phoneme

: a member of the set of the smallest units of speech that serve to distinguish one utterance from another in a language or dialect the \p\ of English pat and the \f\ of English fat are two different phonemes

Other Words from phoneme

phonemic \ fə-ˈnē-mik, fō-

\ adjective

phonemically \ -mi-k(ə-)lē

\ adverb