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Synonyms

phonic

American  
[fon-ik, foh-nik] / ˈfɒn ɪk, ˈfoʊ nɪk /

adjective

  1. of or relating to speech sounds.


Other Word Forms

  • phonically adverb

Etymology

Origin of phonic

First recorded in 1815–25; phon- + -ic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

His team’s series of experiments showed that whales produce their wide repertoire of sounds with the same organ — the phonic lips in their nose, which vibrate much like a larynx does in humans.

From Washington Post • Mar. 2, 2023

"In toothed whales, air is only used to drive the phonic lips that then, via tissue acceleration, generates a click that propagates through tissue in the nose and then into the water," Elemans added.

From Reuters • Mar. 2, 2023

Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You revolve around the idea of phonic passing and “code switching”.

From The Guardian • Aug. 20, 2018

The clicks, produced in organs known as phonic lips at rates of up to 1,000 clicks per second, are inaudible to the human ear, but detectable through special, underwater microphones.

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2016

This was not until after it had been tested in his own family and some others, where I had introduced the phonic method.

From Guide to the Kindergarten and Intermediate Class and Moral Culture of Infancy. by Mann, Mary E.