Semivowel

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.
  2. 2
    a vowellike sound that serves as a consonant wordnet
  3. 3
    A letter which represents a semivowel sound, such as w or y in English.

Synonyms

All synonyms
glidealveolararticulationaspirationassimilatedassimilation

Example

More examples

"Some languages add a semivowel at a hiatus."

Etymology

From semi- + vowel.

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