PHONETICS

Phonetics

1. the science or study of speech sounds and their production, transmission, and perception, and their analysis, classification, and transcription.
2. the science or study of speech sounds with respect to their role in distinguishing meanings among words.
3. the phonetic system of a particular language. Cf. phonology. — phonetician, n. — phonetic, phonetical, adj.

 

Noun

1.

phonetics - the branch of acoustics concerned with speech processes including its production and perception and acoustic analysis acoustics - the study of the physical properties of sound speech sound, phone, sound - (phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language infection - (phonetics) the alteration of a speech sound under the influence of a neighboring sound assimilate - become similar in sound; "The nasal assimilates to the following consonant" dissimilate - become dissimilar by changing the sound qualities; "These consonants dissimilate" shift - change phonetically as part of a systematic historical change; "Grimm showed how the consonants shifted" long - (of speech sounds or syllables) of relatively long duration; "the English vowel sounds in `bate', `beat', `bite', `boat', `boot' are long" short - of speech sounds or syllables of relatively short duration; "the English vowel sounds in `pat', `pet', `pit', `pot', putt' are short" tense - pronounced with relatively tense tongue muscles (e.g., the vowel sound in `beat') lax - pronounced with muscles of the tongue and jaw relatively relaxed (e.g., the vowel sound in `bet')

Simple Definition of phonetic

• : of or relating to spoken language, speech sounds, or the science of phonetics
• : representing each speech sound with a single symbol
• : using a system of written symbols that represent speech sounds in a way that is very close to how they actually sound