verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality. transitive

   "If we take a high vowel […] and devocalise it, we obtain a hiss […]"

2. 2
   To reduce the volume of the vocalizations of (an animal) by surgically removing tissue from its vocal cords. transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

debarkdisbark

Example

More examples

"If we take a high vowel […] and devocalise it, we obtain a hiss […]"

Etymology

From de- + vocalize.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.