I. ˈfän noun
( -s )
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary, from Greek phōnē sound, voice
: the unit of loudness level on a scale beginning at zero for the faintest audible sound and corresponding to the decibel scale of sound intensity with the number of phons of a given sound being equal to the decibels of a pure 1000-cycle tone judged by the listener to be equally loud
II. abbreviation
1. phonetics
2. phonology