— articulatory /ahr tik"yeuh leuh tawr'ee, -tohr'ee/ , adj. — articulatorily , adv.
/ahr tik'yeuh lay"sheuhn/ , n.
1. an act or the process of articulating: the articulation of a form; the articulation of a new thought.
2. Phonet.
a. the act or process of articulating speech.
b. the adjustments and movements of speech organs involved in pronouncing a particular sound, taken as a whole.
c. any one of these adjustments and movements.
d. any speech sound, esp. a consonant.
3. the act of jointing.
4. a jointed state or formation; a joint.
5. Bot.
a. a joint or place between two parts where separation may take place spontaneously, as at the point of attachment of a leaf.
b. a node in a stem, or the space between two nodes.
6. Anat. , Zool. a joint, as the joining or juncture of bones or of the movable segments of an arthropod.
7. Dentistry.
a. the positioning of teeth in a denture, usually on an articulator, for correct occlusion.
b. the bringing of opposing tooth surfaces into contact with each other.
c. the relations of the upper and lower natural or artificial teeth in occlusion.
8. a measure of the effectiveness of a telephonic transmission system in reproducing speech comprehensibly, expressed as the percentage of speech units uttered that is correctly understood.
[ 1400-50; late ME articulacio ( u ) n articulation-, s. of articulatio. See ARTICULATE, -ION ]