Word.ws English Dictionary

devocalize

devocalize verb: to make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality.

Verb

devocalize (third-person singular simple present devocalizes, present participle devocalizing, simple past and past participle devocalized)

  1. (transitive) To make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality.
    • If we take a high vowel […] and devocalise it, we obtain a hiss […]1877, Henry Sweet, A Handbook of Phonetics
  2. (transitive) To reduce the volume of the vocalizations of (an animal) by surgically removing tissue from its vocal cords.
    Synonyms:
    debark, disbark
  3. To remove the vocals of a song with an AI program creating a false instrumental with imperfections (vocal shadows).

Synonyms of devocalize

Forms of devocalize

third-person singular presentdevocalizes
present participledevocalizing
past participledevocalized
pastdevocalized

Origin of devocalize

From de- + vocalize.

Questions about devocalize

What does devocalize mean?
Devocalize means to make toneless; to deprive of vowel quality.
What part of speech is devocalize?
Devocalize is a verb.
What is the past tense of devocalize?
The past tense of devocalize is devocalized.

Words near devocalize in the dictionary

  1. devocalised
  2. devocalises
  3. devocalising
  4. devocalization
  5. devocalizations
  6. devocalize
  7. devocalized
  8. devocalizes
  9. devocalizing
  10. devocation
  11. devocations

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: devocalize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “devocalize.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/devocalize. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.