formant

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. A band of frequencies in a sound spectrum that have greater intensity and determine the quality of a sound, especially the characteristic sounds of the consonants.
  2. Synonym of formative (“a language unit, typically a morph, that has a morphological function”).

Pronunciation

/ˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-formant.wav

Word forms

formant formants

Etymology

Borrowed from German Formant, from Latin fōrmāns (“shaping; forming; fashioning”), present participle of fōrmō (“to shape; to form; to fashion”). Doublet of formans.

Synonyms

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.