vowel

English

Etymology

From Middle English vowel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal and vocalis.

Pronunciation

• enPR: vouʹəl, IPA^(key): /ˈvaʊ.əl/
• (also) enPR: voul, IPA^(key): /vaʊl/

  • Audio (London):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aʊəl, -aʊl

Noun

Examples (sound vs. letter)
English some: 1 vowel sound — [ʌ] 2 vowel letters — o, e French oiseau (“bird”): 2 vowel sounds — [a], [o] 5 vowel letters — o, i, e, a, u Danish gør (“do”): 2 vowel sounds — [ɶ], [ɐ] 1 vowel letter — ø

vowel (plural vowels)

2. (phonetics) A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.

   Antonym: consonant

   Hypernyms: sonorant, resonant

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

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

   Antonym: consonant

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

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

Usage notes

• Apart from a and possibly o, all vowel letters may also represent consonants (semivowels) in English. For example: the e in righteous (when pronounced without yod coalescence), the i in Spaniard, the u in persuade, and the y in yes.

Derived terms

• back vowel
• cardinal vowel
• dark vowel
• disemvowel
• echo vowel
• front vowel
• full vowel
• gliding vowel
• half-long vowel
• happy vowel
• inherent vowel
• lax vowel
• linking vowel
• long vowel
• long-vowel mark
• nasal vowel
• natural vowel
• neutral vowel
• oral vowel
• overlong vowel
• prop vowel
• R-coloured vowel, R-colored vowel
• reduced vowel
• rhotacized vowel
• rounded vowel
• semi-vowel, semivowel
• short vowel
• tense vowel
• thematic vowel
• unrounded vowel
• vowel harmony
• vowelization, vowelisation
• vowelize, vowelise
• vowel killer
• vowelless
• vowelling
• vowel lowering
• vowel mutation
• vowel point
• vowel pointing
• vowel quantity
• vowel reduction
• vowel rhyme
• vowel sign
• weak vowel merger

Related terms

• intervocalic (“occurring between vowels”)
• postvocalic (“occurring after a vowel”)
• prevocalic (“occuring before a vowel”)
• vocalic (“pertaining to a vowel”)
• vocalization

Descendants

• → Hawaiian: woela
• → Yoruba: fáwẹ̀lì

Translations

sound

• Afrikaans: klinker (af), vokaal (af)
• Albanian: zanore (sq) f
• Altai:

  Southern Altai: ӱндӱ (ündü)

• Arabic: صَائِت m (ṣāʔit), مُصَوِّت m (muṣawwit)
• Aragonese: vocal f
• Armenian: ձայնավոր (hy) (jaynavor)
• Asturian: vocal (ast) f
• Azerbaijani: sait
• Bashkir: һуҙынҡы (huźınqı)
• Basque: bokal
• Belarusian: гало́сны (be) m (halósny)
• Bengali: স্বর (bn) (śor)
• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: tiyaw

• Bulgarian: гла́сна (bg) f (glásna)
• Burmese: သရ (my) (sa.ra.)
• Catalan: vocal (ca) f
• Chechen: мукъаме (muqʼame)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 母音 (zh) (mǔyīn), 元音 (zh) (yuányīn)

• Corsican: vucale f
• Czech: samohláska (cs) f
• Danish: vokal (da) c, selvlyd (rare)
• Dutch: klinker (nl) m, klinkerklank m
• Esperanto: vokalo
• Estonian: täishäälik (et), vokaal (et)
• Faroese: sjálvljóð n
• Finnish: vokaali (fi)
• French: voyelle (fr) f
• Galician: vogal (gl) f
• Georgian: ხმოვანი (xmovani)
• German: Vokal (de) m; (specifying sound vs. letter) Vokallaut m; (chiefly elementary school) Selbstlaut (de) m
• Greek: φωνήεν (el) n (foníen)

  Ancient Greek: φωνήεντα (γράμματα) n pl (phōnḗenta (grámmata)), φωνῆεν n (phōnêen)

• Gujarati: સ્વર n (svar)
• Haitian Creole: vwayèl
• Hausa: wasali
• Hawaiian: woela
• Hebrew: תְּנוּעָה (he) f (tnu‘á)
• Hindi: स्वर (hi) m (svar), सुर (hi) m (sur)
• Hungarian: magánhangzó (hu)
• Icelandic: sérhljóð (is) n
• Indonesian: huruf hidup (id), vokal (id)
• Ingrian: vokala, glasnoi
• Interlingua: vocal
• Irish: guta (ga) m
• Italian: vocale (it) f
• Japanese: 母音 (ja) (ぼいん, boin)
• Kalmyk: эгшг (egşg)
• Kapampangan: kakatni
• Kazakh: дауысты (dauysty)
• Khmer: ស្រៈ (km) (sraʼ), ស្វរៈ (km) (svaʼraʼ)
• Korean: 모음(母音) (ko) (mo'eum), 홀소리 (ko) (holsori)
• Kyrgyz: үндүү (ky) (ündüü)
• Lao: ສະຫລະ (sa la)
• Latin: vōcālis (la) f
• Latvian: patskanis m, vokālis m
• Lithuanian: balsis (lt)
• Macedonian: само́гласка f (samóglaska)
• Malay: bunyi hidup, vokal
• Mansi:

  Northern Mansi: турыӈ суй (turyň suj)

• Māori: oro puare
• Meänkieli: vukaali
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: эгшиг (mn) (egšig)

  Mongolian script: ᠡᠭᠡᠰᠢᠭ (egesig)

• Navajo: zaʼáán
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: vokal (no) m

• Occitan: vocala (oc) f
• Old Norse: hljóðstafr
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: واکِه (fa) (vâke)

• Plautdietsch: Metlut m
• Polish: samogłoska (pl) f
• Portuguese: vogal (pt) f
• Punjabi: ਸਵਰ m (savar)
• Romanian: vocală (ro) f
• Romansh: vocal m
• Russian: гла́сный (ru) m (glásnyj)
• Sanskrit: स्वर (sa) m (svara)
• Scottish Gaelic: fuaimreag f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: самоглас m, са̏могласнӣк m, во̀ка̄л m

  Latin: samoglas m, sȁmoglasnīk (sh) m, vòkāl (sh) m

• Slovak: samohláska f
• Slovene: samoglasnik (sl) m
• Spanish: vocal (es) f
• Swahili: vokali (sw), irabu (sw)
• Swedish: vokal (sv) c, vokalljud n, självljud (sv) n (archaic)
• Tagalog: patinig
• Tajik: садонок (sadonok)
• Telugu: అచ్చు (te) (accu)
• Thai: สระ (th) (sà)
• Turkish: ünlü (tr), sesli (tr)
• Turkmen: çekimli
• Ukrainian: голосни́й m (holosnýj)
• Urdu: مُصَوِّت m (musavvit)
• Uyghur: سوزۇق تاۋۇش (sozuq tawush)
• Uzbek: unli (uz)
• Veps: vokalʹ
• Vietnamese: nguyên âm (vi), mẫu âm (vi)
• Volapük: vokat (vo)
• Walloon: voyale (wa) f
• Welsh: llafariad (cy) f
• Yiddish: וואָקאַל (vokal)
• Yoruba: fáwẹ̀lì
• Zulu: unkamisa class 1a/2a

letter

• Afrikaans: klinker (af), vokaal (af)
• Arabic: حَرَكَة f (ḥaraka) (short vowel sign), حَرْفُ مَدّ f (ḥarfu madd) (long vowel sign)
• Aragonese: vocal f
• Armenian: ձայնավոր (hy) (jaynavor)
• Asturian: vocal (ast) f
• Bashkir: һуҙынҡы (huźınqı)
• Basque: bokal
• Belarusian: гало́сная f (halósnaja)
• Bikol:

  Central Bikol: tiyaw

• Bulgarian: гла́сна (bg) f (glásna)
• Catalan: vocal (ca) f
• Chechen: мукъаме (muqʼame)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 母音 (zh) (mǔyīn), 元音 (zh) (yuányīn)

• Corsican: vucale f
• Czech: samohláska (cs) f
• Danish: vokal (da) c
• Dusun:

  Central Dusun: vokal

• Dutch: klinker (nl) m
• Faroese: sjálvljóð n
• Finnish: vokaali (fi)
• French: voyelle (fr) f
• Galician: vogal (gl) f, letra vogal f
• Georgian: ხმოვანი (xmovani)
• German: Vokal (de) m; (specifying letter vs. sound) Vokalbuchstabe m
• Greek: φωνήεν (el) n (foníen)

  Ancient Greek: φωνῆεν n (phōnêen)

• Gujarati: સ્વર n (svar)
• Hungarian: magánhangzó (hu), magánhangzóbetű
• Icelandic: sérhljóði m
• Indonesian: huruf hidup (id), vokal (id)
• Ingrian: vokala, glasnoi
• Interlingua: vocal
• Irish: guta (ga) m
• Italian: vocale (it) f
• Japanese: 母音 (ja) (ぼいん, boin), 母音字 (ja) (ぼいんじ, boinji)
• Kankanaey: patinig
• Kapampangan: siwala, siuala
• Korean: 모음(母音) (ko) (mo'eum)
• Lao: ສະຫລະ (sa la)
• Latvian: patskanis m, vokālis m
• Macedonian: само́гласка f (samóglaska)
• Malagasy: zanatsoratra (mg)
• Malay: huruf hidup, vokal
• Māori: oro puare
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: эгшиг үсэг (egšig üseg)

• Occitan: vocala (oc) f
• Persian:

  Iranian Persian: واکِه (fa) (vâke)

• Polish: samogłoska (pl) f
• Portuguese: vogal (pt) f
• Romanian: vocală (ro) f
• Romansh: vocal m
• Russian: гла́сная (ru) f (glásnaja)
• Sanskrit: स्वर (sa) m (svara)
• Scots: vouel
• Scottish Gaelic: fuaimreag f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: самоглас m, са̏могласнӣк m

  Latin: samoglas m, sȁmoglasnīk (sh) m

• Slovak: samohláska f
• Spanish: vocal (es) f, letra vocal f
• Swahili: vokali (sw), irabu (sw)
• Swedish: vokal (sv) c
• Tagalog: patinig
• Tamil: உயிரெழுத்து (ta) (uyireḻuttu)
• Telugu: అచ్చు (te) (accu)
• Thai: เสียงสระ, สระ (th) (sà)
• Turkish: ünlü (tr)
• Ukrainian: голосна́ f (holosná)
• Veps: vokalʹ
• Volapük: vokat (vo), vokatatonat
• Walloon: voyale (wa) f
• Yoruba: fáwẹ̀lì

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Guarani:

  Paraguayan Guarani: ^{(please verify)} pu'ae

• Gujarati: ^{(please verify)} રવર n (ravar)
• Indonesian: ^{(please verify)} huruf hidup (id), ^{(please verify)} huruf vokal (id)
• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} vocal

See also

• Types of vowels (phonetics):

front, central, back

rounded, unrounded

close, near-close, close-mid, mid, open-mid, near-open, open

• Other categories of sounds (phonetics):

consonant

liquid

Verb

vowel (third-person singular simple present vowels, present participle (US) voweling or (UK) vowelling, simple past and past participle (US) voweled or (UK) vowelled)

2. (linguistics) To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic).

   Synonyms: vowelize, vocalize

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

     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’ […] .

Translations

to add vowel points

• Arabic: حَرَّكَ (ar) m (ḥarraka)

Anagrams

• wolve

Middle English

Alternative forms

• vouelle, vowelle, wowel, wowell

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French vouel, vouele, variants of voyeul, from Latin vōcālis. Compare voys.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vuːˈɛːl/, /vuːˈɛl/, /ˈvuːɛl/

Noun

vowel (plural voweles)

1. A vowel (sound formed with an unblocked oral cavity or a letter representing it).

   Coordinate term: consonaunt

Descendants

• English: vowel
• Middle Scots: voual
  • Scots: vouel, voul

References

• “vǒuel, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.