Phonetic

//fəˈnɛt.ɪk// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    In such writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a phono-semantic character that provides an indication of its pronunciation; contrasted with semantic (which is usually the radical).

    "I suspect that 田 dien is the original character and true phonetic of the whole group."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Relating to the sounds of spoken language. not-comparable
  2. 2
    Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes). not-comparable
  3. 3
    Relating to the spoken rather than written form of a word or name, as opposed to orthographic. not-comparable

    "All unfamiliar names have been transcribed in phonetic spelling."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of or relating to the scientific study of speech sounds wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to speech sounds wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
accentedalveolarapicalapico-alveolarapico-dentalarrowhead

Example

More examples

"English is not a phonetic language."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin phōnēticus, from Ancient Greek φωνητῐκός (phōnētĭkós). By surface analysis, phone + -etic.

Related phrases

NATO phonetic alphabetinternational phonetic alphabetphonetic alphabetphonetic determinativephonetic erosionphonetic namephonetic spelling alphabetphonetic symbolphonetic symbolismphono semantic

More for "phonetic"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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