rhotic

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

rhotic

/ˈɹəʊ.tɪk/ UK
[ˈɹəʊ̯.t(ʰ)ɪk] UK
/ˈɹoʊ.tɪk/ US
[ˈɹoʊ̯.ɾɪk] US

Rhymes with -əʊtɪk

Where it comes from

Back-formation from rhotacism, coined in 1968 by John C. Wells.

adjective

not comparable, of an English accent That allows the phoneme /ɹ/ to follow a vowel, as in bar (/bɑːɹ/) and bard or barred (/bɑːɹd/); (of an English speaker) who speaks with such an accent. Rhotic speech is common in Ireland, Scotland, much of the United States, Canada, West Country England, and many parts of the north and west of England.
not comparable, of a phoneme Having a sound quality associated with the letter R; having the sound of any of certain IPA symbols, including /ɹ/, /ɻ/, /ɚ/, /ɝ/ and /r/. Near-synonym: retroflex
Similar: retroflex

Opposite: non-rhotic

noun rhotics

A rhotic consonant or rhotic vowel (R-coloured vowel). It is well known that the phonetic realization of rhotics varies considerably from language to language, even from dialect to dialect. Rhotics can be realized as flaps, taps, trills (uvular, coronal or bilabial), or as assibilated or fricative variants.

Thesaurus

adjective

Opposite: non-rhotic

Translations

Every language

noun rhotic phoneme

Español	rótica, vibrante
Português	rótico

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"rhotic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/rhotic. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

rhotic. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/rhotic

Chicago

"rhotic." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/rhotic.

BibTeX

@misc{rhotic_2026,
  title = {rhotic},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/rhotic},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}