vowel

B1 Topic:Communication

US /ˈvaʊ.əl/ See IPA manual

Freq #32033

Meanings

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

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.

Thesaurus

Word family

Forms vowels

Derived forms disemvowelsemi-vowelsemivowelvowelisationvowelisevowelizationvowelizevowellessvowelling

Related forms back central closeclose-midconsonant frontintervocalicliquid midnear-closenear-openopen

Etymology

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.

*wekʷ- Proto-Indo-European vowel Middle English vouel Old French vōcālis Latin

View etymology graph ->

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# vowel

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** noun
**IPA (US):** /ˈvaʊ.əl/
**Frequency rank:** 32033

## Meanings
1. A speech sound made with the mouth open and the air flowing freely, such as the sounds of a, e, i, o, and u.
2. A letter that stands for such a sound; in English these are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.

## Examples
- The vowel in 'cat' is short.
- The word 'queue' has more vowels than consonants.

## Derived Forms
- disemvowel
- semi-vowel
- semivowel
- vowelisation
- vowelise
- vowelization
- vowelize
- vowelless
- vowelling

## Related Forms
- back
- central
- close
- close-mid
- consonant
- front
- intervocalic
- liquid
- mid
- near-close
- near-open
- open

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *wekʷ-
- Root: vowel
- Root: vouel
- Root: vōcālis

## Etymology
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.

## AI Etymology
Vowel is 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. Important historical forms include Proto-Indo-European *wekʷ-, Middle English vowel, Old French vouel, and Latin vōcālis. In present-day use, it can mean a speech sound made with the mouth open and the air flowing freely, such as the sounds of a, e, i, o, and u, or a letter that stands for such a sound; in English these are a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y.

## Topics
- Communication

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vowel

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