phonetic

Syllables: pho·net·ic/fəˈnɛt.ɪk/[fəˈnɛɾ.ɪk]

phonetic adjective: relating to the sounds of spoken language.

Adjective

phonetic (not comparable)

Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes).
Relating to the spoken rather than written form of a word or name, as opposed to orthographic.
- All unfamiliar names have been transcribed in phonetic spelling.

Noun

phonetic (plural phonetics)

In such writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a phono-semantic character that provides an indication of its pronunciation; contrasted with semantic (which is usually the radical).
- I suspect that 田 dien is the original character and true phonetic of the whole group.1887–88, J. Edkins, “The character 眞 true”, in The China Review, volume 16, page 306
- In the first case the character is pronounced identically, even as to tone, as the phonetic.1984, John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy

phonetic meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

phonetic in Hindi

phonetic: ध्वन्यात्मक dhvanyātmak

phonetic in Tamil

ஒலிப்புமுறை சார்ந்த, குரல், பேச்சுக்குரல், பேச்சொலி

phonetic in Marathi

phonetic; relating to speech sounds: ध्वन्यात्मक dhvanyātmak

phonetic in Urdu

صوتی

More languagesFewer languages

phonetic in Bengali: ফোনের সঙ্গে সম্পর্কিত, অর্থোগ্রাফিকের বিপরীতে
phonetic in Telugu: ఫోనెటిక్, ఫోనిటిక్
phonetic in Malayalam: ഭാഷാശബ്ദത്തെ സംബന്ധിച്ച, സ്വരസംബന്ധിയായ
phonetic in Kannada: ಧ್ವನಿಸಂಬಂಧಿ, ಧ್ವನಿಯ, ಉಚ್ಚಾರಣೆಗೆ ಸಂಬಂಧಿಸಿದ, ಉಚ್ಚಾರಣಾನುರೂಪವಾಗಿರುವ
phonetic in Punjabi: ਫੋਨੇਟਿਕ, ਫੋਨੈਟਿਕ
phonetic in Gujarati: ધ્વન્યાત્મક, ફોનેટિક
phonetic in Nepali: ध्वन्यात्मक, फोनेटिक
phonetic in Tagalog: palatinigin

Examples of phonetic in a sentence

Although it is possible to represent this phonetic distinction orthographically, such representation is not emically realized.
Phonetic transcription of rhotics differs depending on whether the rhotic is a steady-state or dynamic vowel.
The ARPAbet system provides a broad, phonetic transcription that is nearly phonemic.

All 40 example sentences with phonetic

Forms of phonetic

plural	phonetics

Origin of phonetic

Borrowed from Latin phōnēticus, from Ancient Greek φωνητῐκός (phōnētĭkós). By surface analysis, phone + -etic.

Phrases with phonetic

Questions about phonetic

What does phonetic mean?: Phonetic means relating to the sounds of spoken language.
What is phonetic in Hindi?: Phonetic in Hindi is ध्वन्यात्मक (dhvanyātmak). See Phonetic meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is phonetic?: Phonetic can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce phonetic?: Phonetic is pronounced /fəˈnɛt.ɪk/.

Words near phonetic in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: phonetic (page history and authors); ध्वन्यात्मक (Hindi) (page history and authors); phonetic (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ध्वन्यात्मक (Marathi) (page history and authors); phonetic (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phonetic (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phonetic (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); phonetic (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phonetic (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); phonetic (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); phonetic (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); phonetic (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-phonetic.ogg.

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