phonetic

Borrowed from Latin phōnēticus, from Ancient Greek φωνητῐκός (phōnētikós).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɛtɪk/
• (US) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɛtɪk/, [fəˈnɛɾɪk]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: pho‧net‧ic

phonetic (not comparable)

1. Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
2. (linguistics) Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes)

• phonetical
• phonetically

phonetic (plural phonetics)

1. (linguistics) 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).
   • 1887–88, J. Edkins, “The character 眞 true”, in The China Review, volume 16, page 306:

     I suspect that 田 dien is the original character and true phonetic of the whole group.

   • 1984, John DeFrancis, The Chinese Language: Fact and Fantasy:

     In the first case the character is pronounced identically, even as to tone, as the phonetic.

   • 2013, William S-Y. Wang, Love and War in Ancient China: Voices from the Shijing, page 25:

     Or, the semantic may wrap around the phonetic, or position within the phonetic.