Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1800-1900
Language: French
Origin: phonème, from Greek phonema 'speech sound'

phoneme

 noun
     
NEW! See related topics: LINGUISTICS
pho‧neme [countable] technical
SL the smallest unit of speech that can be used to make one word different from another word, such as the 'b' and the 'p' in 'big' and 'pig'
—phonemic adjective
—phonemically adverb
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.
 
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