Word.ws English Dictionary

vocable

UK/ˈvəʊkəbl̩//ˈvoʊkəbl̩/

vocable noun: a word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.

Noun

vocable (plural vocables)

  1. A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
    • Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress.1974, Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament
    • At first the man puzzled; then he smiled. He pronounced a string of uncouth vocables.1925, John Buchan, The House of the Four Winds
  2. A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.
    • Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text.a. 2010, Victoria Lindsay Levine, Native American Music, Encyclopaedia Britannica

Adjective

vocable (not comparable)

  1. Able to be uttered.
    • a vocable marker
    Synonyms:
    utterable, voiceable

vocable meaning in Urdu

vocable in Urdu

vocable
کلمہ kalima

Synonyms of vocable

Forms of vocable

pluralvocables

Origin of vocable

From Middle English vocable, from Middle French vocable and its etymon, Latin vocābulum, from vocō (“to call”).

From Latin vocō + -able.

Words formed from vocable

Questions about vocable

What does vocable mean?
Vocable means a word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
What is vocable in Urdu?
Vocable in Urdu is کلمہ (kalima). See Vocable meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is vocable?
Vocable can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce vocable?
Vocable is pronounced /ˈvəʊkəbl̩/ (UK).
What is the plural of vocable?
The plural of vocable is vocables.

Words near vocable in the dictionary

  1. voc-ed
  2. voc.
  3. vocab
  4. vocabilities
  5. vocability
  6. vocable
  7. vocables
  8. vocaboomer
  9. vocabs
  10. vocabular
  11. vocabularia

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: vocable (page history and authors); کلمہ (Urdu) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-vocable.ogg.

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