vocable

plural vocables

1. human sciencesA word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.

   At first the man puzzled; then he smiled. He pronounced a string of uncouth vocables.

   1925, John Buchan, The House of the Four Winds

   1 more example

   Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress.

   1974, Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament

2. entertainmentA syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.

   Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text.

   a. 2010, Victoria Lindsay Levine, Native American Music, Encyclopaedia Britannica

1. not comparablehuman sciencesAble to be uttered.

   a vocable marker

   Synonyms: utterable, voiceable