vowel
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
vowel/ˈvaʊəl/
▶noun a speech sound which is produced by comparatively open configuration of the vocal tract and which is capable of forming a syllable.
■ a letter representing such a sound.
– derivatives
vowelled (US voweled) adjective,
vowelless adjective.
vowelled (US voweled) adjective,
vowelless adjective.
– origin ME: from OFr. vouel, from L. vocalis (littera) ‘vocal (letter)’.
'vowel' also found in these Oxford entries:
a
- a-
- acantho-
- accent
- aceto-
- Æ
- an
- an-
- an-
- ana-
- anaptyxis
- ant-
- ap-
- aphesis
- apo-
- athematic
- auto-
- bi-
- bin-
- break
- breve
- bromo-
- cardinal vowel
- chlor-
- chole-
- circumflex
- clipped
- consonant
- crasis
- cupr-
- cupro-
- deca-
- devoice
- di-
- dia-
- diaeresis
- diphthong
- drawl
- ep-
- epi-
- formant
- fracture
- front
- gastr-
- gastro-
- glide
- grave accent
- hexa-
- high
- hist-
