Vocable
adj, noun ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
"Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress."
- 2 a word that is spoken aloud wordnet
- 3 A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.
"Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text."
- 1 Able to be uttered. not-comparable
"a vocable marker"
Example
More examples"Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress."
Etymology
From Middle English vocable, from Middle French vocable and its etymon, Latin vocābulum, from vocō (“I call”).
From Latin vocō + -able.
More for "vocable"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.