n.
Pronunciation: ' f ō - ˌ n ē m
Function: noun
Etymology: French phonème, from Greek ph ō n ē mat-, ph ō n ē ma speech sound, utterance, from ph ō nein 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