Ancient Greek word root · Speech & Writing

phon-: sound, voice

phon- is an Ancient Greek root meaning “sound, voice”. Learn its variants and explore 8 connected words.

Meaning and variants

Meaning: sound, voice

Root forms: phon-, -phone, phono-

Source word: φωνή — sound

Word family and examples

• telephone

  a device that transmits speech over distances by converting sound to signals

• microphone

  an instrument for converting sound waves into electrical energy

• saxophone

  A single-reed instrument musical instrument of the woodwind family, usually made of brass and with a distinctive loop bringing the bell upwards.

• phonetic

  Relating to the sounds of spoken language.

• megaphone

  a cone-shaped device for amplifying and directing the voice

• phonograph

  A device that captures sound waves onto an engraved archive; a lathe.

• phonology

  The study of the way sounds function in languages, including accent, intonation, phonemes, stress, and syllable structure, and which sounds are distinctive units within a language; (countable) the way sounds function within a given language; a phonological system.

• hydrophone

  a transducer that converts underwater sound waves into electrical signals, rather like a microphone

Root connections help with vocabulary recall. They are not a complete etymological history, and a spelling match alone does not prove a relationship.

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