Standard Lemma guide

vocalic

adj · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /vəʊˈkælɪk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • Canada, General-American: /voʊˈkælɪk/
  • Australian: /vəʉˈkælɪk/
  • New-Zealand: /vɐʉˈkælək/

1

adj

Meaning 1

Pertaining to a vowel.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adjective

Meaning 2

being or containing or characterized by vowels- Walter Scott

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • vocalic sounds
  • the Gaelic language being uncommonly vocalic

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: consonantal

3

adjective

Meaning 3

relating to or associated with or containing a vowel

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • vocalic segments
  • the vocalic ablaut

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree French vocal Proto-Indo-European *-ikos Proto-Italic *-ikos Latin -icuslbor. Old French -ique Middle French -ique French -ique French vocaliquebor. English vocalic Borrowed from French vocalique, from vocal + -ique.

Across languages

Translations

13 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Asturian: vocálicu — used as a vowel
  • Belarusian: гало́сны (halósny) — used as a vowel
  • Finnish: vokaalinen — used as a vowel
  • French: vocalique — used as a vowel
  • German: vokalisch — used as a vowel
  • Indonesian: vokalis — used as a vowel
  • Interlingua: vocalic — used as a vowel
  • Polish: samogłoskowy — used as a vowel
  • Portuguese: vocálico — used as a vowel
  • Romanian: vocalic — used as a vowel
  • Russian: гла́сный (glásnyj) — used as a vowel
  • Serbo-Croatian: samoglasan — used as a vowel
  • Ukrainian: голосни́й (holosnýj) — used as a vowel