phoneme
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phoneme
- /ˈfəʊ.niːm/ UK
- /ˈfoʊ.nim/ US
Rhymes with -əʊniːm
Where it comes from
From Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). By surface analysis, phone (“speech sound”) + -eme (“unit”).
noun phonemes
- An indivisible unit of sound in a given language. A phoneme is an abstraction of the physical speech sounds (phones) and may encompass several different phones. It is crucial for the phoneme structure of Finnish — traditionally /d/ has not been included in the Finnish phonotax, but it fulfils the criteria of a phoneme (Karlsson, 1983: 66-7).
Translations
Every language
noun indivisible unit of sound
| Español | fonema |
|---|---|
| 한국어 | 음소 eumso, 표음 pyoeum, 낱소리 natsori |
| 日本語 | 音素 onso |
| 中文 | 音素 yīnsù, 音位 yīnwèi |
| हिन्दी | स्वनिम svanim |
| Kiswahili | fonimu |
| Português | fonema |
| Français | phonème |
| Deutsch | Phonem |
| Italiano | fonema |
| Ελληνικά | φώνημα fónima |
| Română | fonem |
| Русский | фоне́ма fonéma |
| Tiếng Việt | âm vị |
| العربية | فُونِيم fōnēm, صَوْت لُغَوِيّ ṣawt luḡawiyy |
Talk about this word "phoneme." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/phoneme. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. phoneme. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/phoneme "phoneme." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/phoneme.Cite this
@misc{phoneme_2026,
title = {phoneme},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/phoneme},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
