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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

allophone.

Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈaləˌfəʊn/UK/ˈæləˌfoʊn/US/ˈæləˌfəʉn/Australia

  1. Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme.

    In some languages, [ʋ] is an allophone of /v/.

  2. A person whose mother tongue is one other than that spoken by the majority.

  3. A person whose mother tongue is one other than that spoken by the majority. A person whose mother tongue is neither English, French, nor (sometimes) an indigenous language.

    Canada
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos Proto-Hellenic *ál͏̌l͏̌os Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́λλος (ắllos)der. English allo- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́ Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)der. English -phone English allophone From allo- (“different”) + -phone.

adj/ˈaləˌfəʊn/UK/ˈæləˌfoʊn/US/ˈæləˌfəʉn/Australia

  1. Of or relating to those whose mother tongue is neither English, French, nor (sometimes) an indigenous language of Canada.

    Canada

  2. That which is of a language other than that spoken by the majority.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂el-der. Proto-Indo-European *h₂élyos Proto-Hellenic *ál͏̌l͏̌os Ancient Greek ᾰ̓́λλος (ắllos)der. English allo- Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-der. Proto-Hellenic *pʰōnā́ Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ)der. English -phone English allophone From allo- (“different”) + -phone.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.