English
Etymology
Borrowed from Old French vouel (French voyelle ), from Latin vōcālis ( “ voiced ” ) , a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν ( phōnêen ) . Doublet of vocal .
Pronunciation
Noun
vowel (plural vowels )
( phonetics ) A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity , forming the prominent sound of a syllable .
( orthography ) A letter representing the sound of vowel; in English, the vowels are a , e , i , o , u , and sometimes y .
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
See also
Placing of an element :
Types of vowels ( phonetics ) :
Translations
sound
Afrikaans: klinker (af) , vokaal (af)
Albanian: zanore (sq) f
Arabic: صَوْت مُتَحَرِّك m ( ṣawt mutaḥarrik ) , مُصَوَّت m ( muṣawwat ) , صَوْت مَدّ m ( ṣawt madd )
Aragonese: vocal f
Armenian: ձայնավոր (hy) ( jaynavor )
Asturian: vocal f
Azerbaijani: sait
Bashkir: һуҙынҡы ( huźınqı )
Basque: bokal
Belarusian: гало́сны m ( halósny )
Bengali: স্বর ( śor )
Bulgarian: гла́сна (bg) f ( glásna )
Burmese: သရ (my) ( sa.ra. )
Catalan: vocal (ca) f
Chechen: мукъаме ( muqʼame )
Chinese:
Mandarin: 母音 (zh) ( mǔyīn ) , 元音 (zh) ( yuányīn )
Czech: samohláska (cs) f
Danish: vokal (da) c , selvlyd ( rare )
Dutch: klinker (nl) m , klinkerklank m
Esperanto: vokalo
Estonian: täishäälik , vokaal (et)
Faroese: sjálvljóð n
Finnish: vokaali (fi)
French: voyelle (fr) f
Galician: vogal (gl) f
Georgian: ხმოვანი ( xmovani )
German: Vokal (de) m ; ( specifying sound vs. letter ) Vokallaut m ; ( chiefly elementary school ) Selbstlaut (de) m
Greek:
Ancient: φωνήεντα (γράμματα ) n pl ( phōnḗenta (grámmata) )
Modern: φωνήεν (el) n ( foníen )
Haitian Creole: vwayèl
Hausa: wasali
Hebrew: תְּנוּעָה (he) f ( tnu‘á )
Hindi: स्वर (hi) m ( svar ) , सुर (hi) m ( sur )
Hungarian: magánhangzó (hu)
Icelandic: sérhljóð (is) n
Indonesian: vokal (id)
Irish: guta (ga) m
Italian: vocale (it) f
Japanese: 母音 (ja) ( ぼいん, boin )
Kalmyk: эгшг ( egşg )
Kazakh: дауысты (kk) ( dauysty )
Khmer: ស្រៈ (km) ( sraʼ ) , ស្វរៈ (km) ( svaʼraʼ )
(deprecated template usage ) {{trans-mid }}
Korean: 모음 (ko) ( mo'eum ) (母音 (ko) )
Kyrgyz: үндүү (ky) ( ündüü )
Lao: ສະຫລະ ( sa la )
Latvian: patskanis m , vokālis m
Lithuanian: balsis (lt)
Macedonian: само́гласка f ( samóglaska )
Malay: bunyi hidup , vokal
Maori: oro puare
Mongolian: эгшиг (mn) ( egšig )
Navajo: zaʼáán
Norwegian:
Bokmål: vokal (no) m
Occitan: vocala (oc) f
Persian: واکه (fa) ( vâke )
Polish: samogłoska (pl) f
Portuguese: vogal (pt) f
Punjabi: ਸਵਰ m ( savar )
Romanian: vocală (ro) f
Russian: гла́сный (ru) m ( glásnyj )
Sanskrit: स्वर (sa) m ( svara )
Scottish Gaelic: fuaimreag f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: самоглас m , са̏могласнӣк m , во̀ка̄л m
Roman: samoglas m , sȁmoglasnīk (sh) m , vòkāl (sh) m
Slovak: samohláska f
Slovene: samoglasnik (sl) m
Southern Altai: ӱндӱ ( ündü )
Spanish: vocal (es) f
Swedish: vokal (sv) c , vokalljud n , självljud (sv) n ( archaic )
Tajik: садонок ( sadonok )
Telugu: అచ్చు (te) ( accu )
Thai: สระ (th) ( sà )
Turkish: ünlü (tr) , sesli (tr)
Turkmen: çekimli
Ukrainian: голосни́й m ( holosnýj )
Urdu: مصوت ( musavvat )
Uzbek: unli (uz)
Vietnamese: nguyên âm (vi) , mẫu âm (vi)
Volapük: vokat (vo)
Walloon: voyale (wa) f
Welsh: llafariad (cy) f
Yiddish: וואָקאַל ( vokal )
Zulu: unkamisa class 1a /2a
letter
Afrikaans: klinker (af) , vokaal (af)
Arabic: حَرَكَة f ( ḥaraka ) ( vowel sign )
Aragonese: vocal f
Armenian: ձայնավոր (hy) ( jaynavor )
Asturian: vocal f
Bashkir: һуҙынҡы ( huźınqı )
Basque: bokal
Bulgarian: гла́сна (bg) f ( glásna )
Catalan: vocal (ca) f
Central Dusun: vokal
Chechen: мукъаме ( muqʼame )
Chinese:
Mandarin: 母音 (zh) ( mǔyīn ) , 元音 (zh) ( yuányīn )
Czech: samohláska (cs) f
Danish: vokal (da) c
Dutch: klinker (nl) m
Faroese: sjálvljóð n
Finnish: vokaali (fi)
French: voyelle (fr) f
Galician: vogal (gl) f , letra vogal f
Georgian: ხმოვანი ( xmovani )
German: Vokal (de) m ; ( specifying letter vs. sound ) Vokalbuchstabe m
Greek: φωνήεν (el) n ( foníen )
Hungarian: magánhangzó (hu) , magánhangzóbetű
Icelandic: sérhljóði m
Indonesian: vokal (id)
Irish: guta (ga) m
Italian: vocale (it) f
Japanese: 母音 (ja) ( ぼいん, boin ) , 母音字 (ja) ( ぼいんじ, boinji )
Kapampangan: siwala , siuala
(deprecated template usage ) {{trans-mid }}
Korean: 모음 (ko) ( mo'eum ) (母音 (ko) )
Lao: ສະຫລະ ( sa la )
Latvian: patskanis m , vokālis m
Macedonian: само́гласка f ( samóglaska )
Malagasy: zanatsoratra (mg)
Malay: huruf hidup , vokal
Maori: oro puare
Mongolian: эгшиг үсэг ( egšig üseg )
Occitan: vocala (oc) f
Persian: واکه (fa)
Polish: samogłoska (pl) f
Portuguese: vogal (pt) f
Romanian: vocală (ro) f
Russian: гла́сная (ru) f ( glásnaja )
Sanskrit: स्वर (sa) m ( svara )
Scots: vouel
Scottish Gaelic: fuaimreag f
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: самоглас m , са̏могласнӣк m
Roman: samoglas m , sȁmoglasnīk (sh) m
Slovak: samohláska f
Spanish: vocal (es) f , letra vocal f
Swedish: vokal (sv) c
Tamil: உயிரெழுத்து (ta) ( uyireḻuttu )
Telugu: అచ్చు (te) ( accu )
Thai: เสียงสระ , สระ (th) ( sà )
Turkish: ünlü (tr)
Volapük: vokat (vo) , vokatatonat
Walloon: voyale (wa) f
Translations to be checked
Verb
vowel (third-person singular simple present vowels , present participle vowelling or ( US ) voweling , simple past and past participle vowelled or ( US ) voweled )
( linguistics ) To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic)
Synonyms
Anagrams