glossic

G2L1O1S1S1I1C3

proper noun

A system of phonetic spelling based upon the present values of English letters, but always using one symbol to represent one sound.

Scrabble 10

Meanings

glossic1

proper noun
  1. Alternative letter-case form of Glossic.

    3. With vowels spelt in my own glossic. 4. With the changes in (2) and (3) made at once — the system I should prefer. 5. Mr Ellis's glossic. 6. Mr Sweet's vowel notation and glossic consonants.

    1878, Frederick Gard Fleay, English Sounds and English Spelling, page 82
    3 more examples

    sheovaalyai for 'chevalier,' although the hard necessity of such cruel and ludricious distortion is not without importance, let us look at Mr. Ellis's glossic spelling of some words with an eye not to its desirability or ...

    1877, Pennsylvania School Journal, page 411

    But in favor of Ellis's glossic he urges: First, that the modern popularity of dialect stories prepares the way for it; second, that it requires no peculiar font, but can be set up at any printing office in any country which uses the Roman alphabet; ...

    1891, The Phonographic Magazine, page 200

    Figure 2.33 A. J. Ellis's glossic alphabet from 1890 (Ellis, 1890) Glossic was a phonetic transcription system invented by Alexander Ellis and used by several writers for the English Dialect Society in the late nineteenth century.

    1996, David Graddol, English: History, Diversity, and Change, Psychology Press, →ISBN, page 79

Glossic2

proper noun
  1. A system of phonetic spelling based upon the present values of English letters, but always using one symbol to represent one sound.

    Mr. Ellis's Glossic is a new concurrent system of spelling, intended to remedy the defects, without interfering with the use, ...

    1873, The quarterly journal of science and annals of mining, metallurgy, engineering, industrial arts, manufactures, and technology, page 382
    2 more examples

    The Glossic version is taken from Ellis's English Dialects, pp. 28, 29, compared with the more exact pateotype version in his English Pronunciation, Part V. pp. 61, 52. I have ventured to alter Ellis's Glossic spelling wherever I thought that I could ...

    1892, James Gow, A Method of English for Secondary Schools, page 162

    The last improvement of Ellis's notational experiments was his 'veri eezi' Glossic of 1871, coupled with the Universal Glossic which aimed “at giving simbelz faur dhi moast mine'ut foanet-ik anal-isis yet achee-vd”.

    1971, Roman Jakobson, Word and Language, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 458

Origin

  1. Latinglossa“a word requiring a gloss”
  2. EnglishGlossic

Latin glossa (“a word requiring a gloss”), + -ic.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

glossic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glossic

MLA

“glossic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glossic. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “glossic,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/glossic.

Source: glossic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.