tense vowel

noun

A vowel produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.

Opposite
lax vowel
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Meanings

nountense vowel (plural tense vowels)

plural tense vowels

  1. human sciencesA vowel produced with relative constriction of the vocal tract.

    All of the vowels illustrated [...] are tense vowels; they are produced with a placement of the tongue that results in greater vocal tract constriction than that of nontense vowels...

    2001, Michael Dobrovolsky, “Phonetics: The Sounds of Language”, in William O'Grady, John Archibald, Mark Aronoff, Janie Rees-Miller, editors, Contemporary Linguistics, →ISBN, page 35

Synonyms & antonyms

Opposite
lax vowel

Origin

Compound of tense + vowel.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

tense vowel. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tense%20vowel

MLA

“tense vowel.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tense%20vowel. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “tense vowel,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/tense%20vowel.

Source: tense vowel on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.