vowel

plural vowels

1. human sciencesA sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.

   Hawaiian has either five or twenty-five vowels, depending on how they are counted.

   Antonyms: consonant

2. communicationsA letter or diacritic representing the sound of a vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y (sometimes), and w (rarely).

   The word facetiously is spelled with all six vowels in alphabetical order.

   1 more example

   The word cwm, borrowed from Welsh, is an example of the letter w serving as a vowel in English.

   Antonyms: consonant

present singular third person vowels · US participle present voweling · UK participle present vowelling · US participle past voweled · US past voweled · UK participle past vowelled · UK past vowelled

1. human sciencesTo add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic).

   However it should be vowelled – perhaps ‘Almaqah’ – his name seems to be composed of ‘Il’, the general name of the paramount Semitic deity […], plus another element that is possibly from the Sabaic verb wqh, ‘to command’ […].

   2019, Tim Mackintosh-Smith, Arabs, Yale University Press, page 52

   Synonyms: vowelize, vocalize