phonetic

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɛt.ɪk/
• (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): /fəˈnɛt.ɪk/, [fəˈnɛɾ.ɪk]

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /fəˈnet.ɪk/, [fəˈneɾ.ɪk]
• Hyphenation: pho‧net‧ic

Adjective

phonetic (not comparable)

1. Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
2. (linguistics) Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes).
3. 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)

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.