(n.) An instrument by which the power of hearing can be gauged and recorded on a scale.

ablaut acoustic phonetics articulatory phonetics audiometer auriscope auriscopy betacism bowwow theory cacography comparative linguistics derivation descriptive linguistics dialectology dingdong theory etymology glossematics glossology glottochronology glottology gradation grammar graphemics historical linguistics language study lexicology lexicostatistics linguistic geography linguistic science linguistics mathematical linguistics morphology morphophonemics mutation orthoepy orthography otography otolaryngology otology otoneurology otopathy otoplasty otoscope otoscopy paleography philology phonetic spelling phonography phonology psycholinguistics rhotacism semantics sociolinguistics sound shift spelldown spelling spelling bee spelling match spelling reform structuralism syntactics transformational linguistics umlaut