adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A palatal consonant.
2. 2
   a semivowel produced with the tongue near the palate (like the initial sound in the English word ‘yeast’) wordnet

Adjective

1. 1
   Pertaining to the palate.
2. 2
   Of an upper tooth, on the side facing the palate. not-comparable
3. 3
   Articulated at the hard palate.
4. 4
   Articulated at the palate: dorsal. uncommon

Adjective

1. 1
   produced with the front of the tongue near or touching the hard palate (as ‘y’) or with the blade of the tongue near the hard palate (as ‘ch’ in ‘chin’ or ‘j’ in ‘gin’) wordnet
2. 2
   relating to or lying near the palate wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

accentedallophonealveolarapicalapico-alveolarapico-dental

Example

More examples

"In English, consonantal Y is a palatal approximant."

Etymology

From palate + -al.

Related phrases

alveo-palatalalveolo-palatallabial-palatallabio-palatallabio-palatalisationlabio-palatalisedlabio-palatalizationlabio-palatalizedlinguo-palatalpalatal expanderpalatal hookpalato-alveolar

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