Word.ws English Dictionary

semivowel

semivowel noun: a sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.

Noun

semivowel (plural semivowels)

  1. A sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.
    Synonyms:
    glide, semiconsonant
  2. A letter which represents a semivowel sound, such as w or y in English.

semivowel meaning in Tamil, Tagalog, Arabic and Vietnamese

semivowel in Tamil

அரை உயிர்

semivowel in Tagalog

sound in speech
malapatinig

semivowel in Arabic

sound in speech
أَشْبَاهُ العِلَلِ ʔašbāhu l-ʕilali

semivowel in Vietnamese

sound in speech
bán nguyên âm

Synonyms of semivowel

Forms of semivowel

pluralsemivowels
alternative formsemi-vowel

Origin of semivowel

From semi- + vowel.

Questions about semivowel

What does semivowel mean?
Semivowel means a sound in speech which has some qualities of a consonant and some qualities of a vowel.
What is semivowel in Tamil?
Semivowel in Tamil is அரை உயிர். See Semivowel meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is semivowel?
Semivowel is a noun.
What is the plural of semivowel?
The plural of semivowel is semivowels.

Words near semivowel in the dictionary

  1. semivocalic
  2. semivoiced
  3. semivolatile
  4. semivoltine
  5. semivoluntary
  6. semivowel
  7. semivowels
  8. semiwaking
  9. semiwater
  10. semiwave
  11. semiwaveless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: semivowel (page history and authors); semivowel (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-semivowel.wav.

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