vowel sound

/ˌvaʊ(ə)l saʊnd/

Other forms: vowel sounds

Definitions of vowel sound

1. noun

   a speech sound made with the vocal tract open
   synonyms: vowel

   types:

   ablaut

   a vowel whose quality or length is changed to indicate linguistic distinctions (such as sing sang sung song)

   diphthong

   a vowel sound that starts near the articulatory position for one vowel and moves toward the position for another

   schwa, shwa

   a neutral middle vowel; occurs in unstressed syllables

   stem vowel, thematic vowel

   a vowel that ends a stem and precedes an inflection

   gradation, grade

   a degree of ablaut

   murmur, murmur vowel

   a schwa that is incidental to the pronunciation of a consonant

   type of:

   phone, sound, speech sound

   (phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language