vowel

Speech parts

1. vowel - Noun

2. vowel - Adjective

3. vowel - Verb

Meaning

A vocal, or sometimes a whispered, sound modified by resonance in the oral passage, the peculiar resonance in each case giving to each several vowel its distinctive character or quality as a sound of speech; -- distinguished from a consonant in that the latter, whether made with or without vocality, derives its character in every case from some kind of obstructive action by the mouth organs. Also, a letter or character which represents such a sound. See Guide to Pronunciation, // 5, 146-149.

Of or pertaining to a vowel; vocal.

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Phrases with the word

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Examples

Brute animals have the vowel sounds; man only can utter consonants. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

A Note on the Mid Back Slack Unrounded Vowel [a] in the English of Today. William Joyce

My favorite rhymes are sort of half-rhymes where you might just get the vowel sound the same, but it's not really a true rhyme. That gives you far more flexibility to capture the feeling you're trying to express. But sometimes it's best not to have any rhyme. Conor Oberst

Out of the simple consonants of the alphabet and our eleven vowels and diphthongs all possible syllables of a certain sort were constructed, a vowel sound being placed between two consonants. Hermann Ebbinghaus

When you make a melody that doesn't come with words from the get-go, sometimes you're just thinking about random vowel sounds that go with it - and it's really, really hard to write lyrics that actually obey the vowel sounds. David Longstreth

'Y' is about the weakest letter of all. 'Y' can't make up its mind if it's a vowel or a consonant, can it? David Mitchell (author)

Close letter words and terms