Essential Greek and Latin Roots for Sixth Grade Students: phon (sound)

Learn these words that derive from the Greek root phone, meaning "sound."

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. cacophony
    loud confusing disagreeable sounds
    The persistent cacophony of grinding and banging and crushing has been replaced by the renewed soundtrack of songbirds. New York Times (Feb 22, 2014)
    kakos ("bad") + phone
  2. euphony
    any pleasing and harmonious sounds
    The ugly cacophony of our mother-tongue here in the north melts on her tongue into the sweet and mellow euphony of Italian and Hindu speech. Francke, Kuno
    eu ("good") + phone
    As is clear from this example sentence, cacophony and euphony are antonyms.
  3. homophone
    a word pronounced the same with another meaning or spelling
    The words wright and write are homophones, a phonological coincidence. The Guardian (Jun 19, 2013)
    homo ("same") + phone
  4. phoneme
    a distinct speech sound in a particular language
    There is also a deeper layer of meaning in the phonemes--the very sound of the words themselves--which music can tap into, he says. BBC (May 25, 2014)
    A phoneme can be as small as the sound of one letter of the alphabet, such as "p" or "b," or it can be a letter combination like "sh" or "ch." A morpheme, on the other hand, is the smallest word part that conveys meaning. English morphemes include prefixes and suffixes (such as pre- and -ness), inflectional affixes (such as the "s" used to make a noun plural), and "free morphemes" that can stand alone, such as girl, strong, or blue.
  5. phonetic
    using symbols to represent each speech sound
    I had read with awe how the Communists had sent phonetic experts into the vast regions of Russia to listen to the stammering dialects of peoples oppressed for centuries by the czars. Black Boy
  6. phonics
    teaching reading by associating letters with their sounds
    Readers need phonics to sound out unfamiliar words, but they also need vocabulary and general world knowledge to comprehend text. Salon (Sep 12, 2012)
    This system of teaching reading originated in 1844, but it did not become popular until more than sixty years later.
  7. phonogram
    any written symbol standing for a sound or syllable or morpheme or word
    The whole body of Chinese characters, then, may conveniently be divided up, for philological purposes, into pictograms, ideograms and phonograms. Various
    phone + gram (suffix forming nouns about instruments for recording or something written)
  8. phonograph
    a machine that plays records
    Somewhere else a phonograph, scratchy and faded, was hissing out a record of “Roamin’ in the Gloamin”’ sung by Harry Lauder. The Martian Chronicles
  9. symphony
    a large orchestra
    That piece, “Become Ocean,” made its world premiere at the symphony last year and won the Pulitzer Prize for music last month. Seattle Times (May 4, 2014)
    syn ("together") + phone
    A symphony typically orchestra consists of about 100 musicians on string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments, all playing together.
  10. telephone
    electronic equipment that transmits sound over distances
    Mortimer auditioned candidates for the role by telephone, so he could experience their voices only. BBC (May 23, 2014)
    tele ("distant") + phone
  11. xylophone
    a bright-toned wooden bar instrument played with hard-headed mallets
    From the bog the frogs sounded like a continuously and lightly-struck xylophone. Hergesheimer, Joseph
    xylo ("wood") + phone
Created on Mon Jun 16 17:30:47 EDT 2025

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