PHONETIC


Meaning of PHONETIC in English

— phonetically , adv.

/feuh net"ik, foh-/ , adj.

1. Also, phonetical . of or pertaining to speech sounds, their production, or their transcription in written symbols.

2. corresponding to pronunciation: phonetic transcription.

3. agreeing with pronunciation: phonetic spelling.

4. concerning or involving the discrimination of nondistinctive elements of a language. In English, certain phonological features, as length and aspiration, are phonetic but not phonemic.

n.

5. (in Chinese writing) a written element that represents a sound and is used in combination with a radical to form a character.

[ 1820-30; phoneticus phonetikós vocal, equiv. to phonet ( ós ) to be spoken (verbid of phoneîn to speak) + -ikos -IC ]

Random House Webster's Unabridged English dictionary.      Полный английский словарь Вебстер - Random House .