Meanings
plural phonemes
- human sciencesAn indivisible unit of sound in a given language. A phoneme is an abstraction of the physical speech sounds (phones) and may encompass several different phones.
It is crucial for the phoneme structure of Finnish — traditionally /d/ has not been included in the Finnish phonotax, but it fulfils the criteria of a phoneme (Karlsson, 1983: 66-7).
1990, Jarmo Lainio, “Sweden Finnish — development or deterioration?”, in Durk Gorter, editor, Fourth International Conference on Minority Languages: Western and Eastern European papers, Multilingual Matters, →ISBN, page 31
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*bʰeh₂-
- Proto-Hellenic*pʰōnā́
- Ancient Greekφωνή (phōnḗ)
- Ancient Greekφωνέω (phōnéō)
- Ancient Greekφώνημα (phṓnēma)
- Englishphoneme
From Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). By surface analysis, phone (“speech sound”) + -eme (“unit”).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic فُونِيم, صَوْت لُغَوِيّ
- فُونِيم (fōnēm)indivisible unit of sound
- صَوْت لُغَوِيّ (ṣawt luḡawiyy)indivisible unit of sound
Bulgarian фоне́ма
- фоне́ма (fonéma)indivisible unit of sound
Catalan fonema
- fonemaindivisible unit of sound
Chinese Cantonese 音素, 音位
- 音素indivisible unit of sound
- 音位indivisible unit of sound
Chinese Mandarin 音素, 音位
- 音素 (yīnsù)indivisible unit of sound
- 音位 (yīnwèi)indivisible unit of sound
Czech foném
- fonémindivisible unit of sound
Danish fonem
- fonemindivisible unit of sound
Dutch foneem
- foneemindivisible unit of sound
Esperanto fonemo
- fonemoindivisible unit of sound
Estonian foneem
- foneemindivisible unit of sound
Finnish foneemi
- foneemiindivisible unit of sound
French phonème
- phonèmeindivisible unit of sound
German Phonem
- Phonemindivisible unit of sound
Greek φώνημα
- φώνημα (fónima)indivisible unit of sound
Hindi स्वनिम
- स्वनिम (svanim)indivisible unit of sound
Hungarian fonéma
- fonémaindivisible unit of sound
Icelandic hljóðan
- hljóðanindivisible unit of sound
Italian fonema
- fonemaindivisible unit of sound
Japanese 音素
- 音素 (onso)indivisible unit of sound
Korean 음소, 표음
- 음소 (eumso)indivisible unit of sound
- 표음 (pyoeum)indivisible unit of sound
- 낱소리 (natsori)indivisible unit of sound
Latin phōnēma
- phōnēmaindivisible unit of sound
Latvian fonēma
- fonēmaindivisible unit of sound
Lithuanian fonema
- fonemaindivisible unit of sound
Malay fonem, warna bunyi
- fonemindivisible unit of sound
- warna bunyiindivisible unit of sound
Māori oromotu
- oromotuindivisible unit of sound
Persian واج
- واج (vâj)indivisible unit of sound
Polish fonem
- fonemindivisible unit of sound
Portuguese fonema
- fonemaindivisible unit of sound
Romanian fonem
- fonemindivisible unit of sound
Russian фоне́ма
- фоне́ма (fonéma)indivisible unit of sound
Slovak fonéma
- fonémaindivisible unit of sound
Spanish fonema
- fonemaindivisible unit of sound
Swahili fonimu
- fonimuindivisible unit of sound
Swedish fonem
- fonemindivisible unit of sound
Tagalog multinig
- multinigindivisible unit of sound
Tamil ஒலியன்
- ஒலியன் (oliyaṉ)indivisible unit of sound
Thai หน่วยเสียง
- หน่วยเสียง (nùai-sǐiang)indivisible unit of sound
Turkish sesbirim
- sesbirimindivisible unit of sound
Ukrainian фоне́ма
- фоне́ма (fonéma)indivisible unit of sound
Vietnamese âm vị
- âm vịindivisible unit of sound
Yiddish פֿאָנעם
- פֿאָנעם (fonem)indivisible unit of sound
Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
phoneme. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phoneme
“phoneme.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phoneme. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “phoneme,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/phoneme.
Source: phoneme on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.