Velar

//ˈviːlɚ// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A sound articulated at the soft palate.
  2. 2
    a consonant produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Articulated at the velum or soft palate.
  2. 2
    Referring to a veil or velum.
Adjective
  1. 1
    produced with the back of the tongue touching or near the soft palate (as ‘k’ in ‘cat’ and ‘g’ in ‘gun’ and ‘ng’ in ‘sing’) wordnet
  2. 2
    of or relating to the velum wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
alveolararticulationaspirationassimilatedassimilationback

Example

More examples

"Velar consonants are articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vēlāris, from vēlum (“sail; veil, awning”).

Related phrases

velar nasalvelar pinch

More for "velar"

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.