[pho.net.ic] adj [NL phoneticus, fr. Gk phonetikos, fr. phonein to sound with the voice, fr. phone voice] (1826) 1 a: of or relating to spoken language or speech sounds b: of or relating to the science of phonetics
2: representing the sounds and other phenomena of speech: as a: constituting an alteration of ordinary spelling that better represents the spoken language, that employs only characters of the regular alphabet, and that is used in a context of conventional spelling b: representing speech sounds by means of symbols that have one value only c: employing for speech sounds more than the minimum number of symbols necessary to represent the significant differences in a speaker's speech -- pho.net.i.cal.ly adv