PHONEME

noun Etymology: French phonème, from Greek phōnēmat-, phōnēma speech sound, utterance, from phōnein to sound Date: 1896 any of the abstract units of the phonetic system of a language that correspond to a set of similar speech sounds (as the velar \\k\\ of cool and the palatal \\k\\ of keel ) which are perceived to be a single distinctive sound in the language