Phonogram

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfəʊ.nə.ɡɹæm/

Definitions

1. A written character that signifies a sound used in spoken language serves as a means to represent phonetic elements
2. A symbol in a writing system that corresponds to specific spoken sounds denotes the relationship between writing and pronunciation
3. A character used in writing systems to indicate a particular sound in spoken language

Etymology: "Phonogram" is a plain technical compound: "phono-", from Greek "phōnē" meaning "sound" or "voice", joined to "-gram", from Greek "gramma" meaning "something written" or "letter". Put together, the word describes a written sign that stands for a sound, which is exactly what the meaning above says. The pairing reflects a broader pattern in which Greek-derived combining forms were assembled into new scientific and technical vocabulary. The word's chief use is in discussions of writing systems. A letter of an alphabet, such as "b" in English, is a phonogram because it represents a sound, while a character such as the Chinese sign for "mountain" is not, since it stands for a word or meaning rather than a sound. Scholars also use the term for multi-letter signs such as "ph" or "sh", which each stand for a single sound.

Synonyms: sound recording, audio recording