1. (n.) A vocal, or sometimes a whispered, sound modified by resonance in the oral passage, the peculiar resonance in each case giving to each several vowel its distinctive character or quality as a sound of speech; -- distinguished from a consonant in that the latter, whether made with or without vocality, derives its character in every case from some kind of obstructive action by the mouth organs. Also, a letter or character which represents such a sound. See Guide to Pronunciation, // 5, 146-149.

2. (a.) of or pertaining to a vowel; vocal.

accented allophone alveolar apical apico-alveolar apico-dental articulated articulation aspiration assimilated assimilation back barytone bilabial broad cacuminal central cerebral check checked close consonant consonantal continuant dental diphthong dissimilated dissimilation dorsal epenthetic vowel explosive flat front glide glossal glottal glottalization guttural hard heavy high intonated labial labialization labiodental labiovelar laryngeal lateral lax light lingual liquid low manner of articulation mid modification monophthong monophthongal morphophoneme mute muted narrow nasal nasalized occlusive open oxytone palatal palatalized parasitic vowel peak pharyngeal pharyngealization pharyngealized phone phoneme phonemic phonetic phonic pitch pitched plosive posttonic prothetic vowel retroflex rounded segmental phoneme semivowel soft sonant sonority speech sound stop stopped stressed strong surd syllabic syllabic nucleus syllabic peak syllable tense thick throaty tonal tonic transition sound triphthong twangy unaccented unrounded unstressed velar vocable vocal vocalic vocoid voice voiced voiced sound voiceless voiceless sound voicing vowellike weak wide