Library / English Dictionary

POLYPHONE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A letter that has two or more pronunciations

Example:

'c' is a polyphone because it is pronounced like 'k' in 'car' but like 's' in 'cell'

Synonyms:

polyphone; polyphonic letter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("polyphone" is a kind of...):

alphabetic character; letter; letter of the alphabet (the conventional characters of the alphabet used to represent speech)

Derivation:

polyphonic (having two or more phonetic values)

Credits