vowel

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A speech sound made with the mouth open and the air flowing freely, such as the sounds of a, e, i, o, and u.

   The vowel in 'cat' is short.

2. 2
   noun

   A letter that stands for such a sound; in English these are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.

   The word 'queue' has more vowels than consonants.

From Middle English vowel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal and vocalis.

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