Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Of or relating to phonetics.
- adj. Representing the sounds of speech with a set of distinct symbols, each designating a single sound: phonetic spelling.
- adj. Of, relating to, or being features of pronunciation that are not phonemically distinctive in a language, as aspiration of consonants or vowel length in English.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Relating or pertaining to the human voice as used in speech; concerning articulate sounds, their mode of production, relations, combinations, and changes: as, phonetic science; phonetic decay.
- Representing articulate sounds or utterance: as, a phonetic mode of writing (in contradistinction to an ideographic or pictorial mode); a phonetic mode of spelling (in contradistinction to a traditional, historical, or so-called etymological mode, such as the current spelling of English, in which letters representing or supposed to represent former and obsolete utterance are retained or inserted according to chances of time, caprice, or imperfect knowledge).
- In entomology, as used by Kirby, noting the collar or prothorax of a hymenopterous insect when it embraces the mesothorax and the posterior angles cover the mesothoracic or so-called vocal spiracles.
Wiktionary
- adj. Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
- adj. Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes)
- n. In such logographic writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a character (if any) that provides an indication of its pronunciation; contrasted with radical.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of or pertaining to the voice, or its use.
- adj. Representing sounds; ; -- opposed to
ideographic .
WordNet 3.0
- adj. of or relating to the scientific study of speech sounds
- adj. of or relating to speech sounds
Etymologies
- New Latin phōnēticus, representing speech sounds, from Greek phōnētikos, vocal, from phōnētos, to be spoken, from phōnein, to produce a sound, from phōnē, sound, voice; see bhā-2 in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“For other flavors, even specific dialectal dictionaries use Latin phonetic transliteration.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Arabic Language Expertise in the Military
“The Mexican-born filmmaker explains Biutful gets its misspelled title from the Spanish phonetic spelling for the English word that Uxbal uses to describe the better world he wants for his children.”
Voice of America: Oscar-Nominee Javier Bardem Wrestles With Slow Death in 'Biutiful'
“The lyrics to this snazzy, uplifting number is spelled out in phonetic Korean to make it easy for you.”
“The shop's name is also displayed in Japanese phonetic characters.”
“The name comes from the phonetic evolution of the Old English word gican ( "itching") pox.”
“When the music was first trickling out of Fifth Ward, there were numerous phonetic spellings for the French words les haricots, from which the music is named: zodico, zologo, zordico and zideco, to name a few.”
“Give an adult learner those three, and he will learn at least as fast as a child (safe certain phonetic aspects, but that’s not significant.”
“I seem to recall phonetic correspondences that seem to suggest that Mid IE couldn't have had ejectives at that time.”
“Others argue the idea of phonetic spelling fails to take dialect into account, since pronunciation varies widely from one English-speaking place to another.”
“John Darnell is quick to correct a leap made by other news media, which, in heralding the new discovery, called the phonetic alphabet a "hallmark of civilization.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘phonetic’.
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phono-, phon-, -phony
relating to sound
phonograph, phonics, phonology, telephony, phoneme, phone, telephone, phonautograph, phonetic, phonebook, phonography, phonolite and 107 more...
jmjarmstrong JM often wonders why phonetic isn’t spelled the way it sounds? Aug 12, 2011
buckeyetuff Why aren't the words phoneticized? Jan 22, 2008
valse A decidedly heterological word. Jan 5, 2007