All Words Glossary

Glossary of Linguistics Terms
beginning with letter V
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variant Tweet Definition of variant Like Definition of variant on Facebook
noun 
  1. one of two or more individuals exhibiting usually slight differences: as a: one that exhibits variation from a type or norm b: one of two or more different spellings or pronuciations of the same word
     
vav Tweet Definition of vav Like Definition of vav on Facebook
noun , also waw or vau
  1. The sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, �.
     
vernacular Tweet Definition of vernacular Like Definition of vernacular on Facebook
noun 
  1. The language of a people, a national language.
''The of the United States is English.
  1. Everyday speech, including colloquialisms, as opposed to literary or liturgical language.
Street can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.
  1. Language unique to a particular group of people; jargon, argot, slang.
For those of a certain age, hiphop might just as well be a foreign language.
  1. (Christianity) The indigenous language of a people, into which the words of the Roman Catholic mass are translated.
Vatican II allowed the celebation of the mass in the .
adjective 
  1. Of or pertaining to everyday language.
     
vocable Tweet Definition of vocable Like Definition of vocable on Facebook
noun 
  1. a word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning
    • 1974: Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress. " Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament
     
vocabulary Tweet Definition of vocabulary Like Definition of vocabulary on Facebook
noun (plural: vocabularies)
  1. A collection of words alphabetized; a dictionary.
  2. The collection of words one knows and uses.
     
vocalize Tweet Definition of vocalize Like Definition of vocalize on Facebook
verb (vocaliz, ing)
  1. to express with the voice, to utter
    • 1876, Walt Whitman, preface to the 1876 edition of Leaves of Grass
    • :Following the modern spirit, the real poems of the present, ever solidifying and expanding into the future, must the vastness and splendor and reality with which scientism has invested man and the universe,...
    • (music) to sing without using words
    • (linguistics): to turn a consonant into a vowel
    • (linguistics): to make a sound voiced rather than voiceless (dated)
     
voice Tweet Definition of voice Like Definition of voice on Facebook
noun 
  1. Sound uttered by the mouth, especially that uttered by human beings in speech or song; sound thus uttered considered as possessing some special quality or character; as, the human ; a pleasant ; a low .
Quotations
  • He with a manly saith his message. " Chaucer
  • Her was ever soft, Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman. " Shakespeare, King Lear, V-iii
  • Thy is music. " Shakespeare, Henry V, V-ii
  • Join thy unto the angel choir. " Milton
    1. (phonetics) Sound of the kind or quality heard in speech or song in the consonants b, v, d, etc., and in the vowels; sonant, or intonated, utterance; tone; " distinguished from mere breath sound as heard in f, s, sh, etc., and also whisper.
  • Note: Voice, in this sense, is produced by vibration of the vocal cords in the larynx which act upon the air, not in the manner of the strings of a stringed instrument, but as a pair of membranous tongues, or reeds, which, being continually forced apart by the outgoing current of breath, and continually brought together again by their own elasticity and muscular tension, break the breath current into a series of puffs, or pulses, sufficiently rapid to cause the sensation of tone. The power, or loudness, of such a tone depends on the force of the separate pulses, and this is determined by the pressure of the expired air, together with the resistance on the part of the vocal cords which is continually overcome. Its pitch depends on the number of aí«rial pulses within a given time, that is, on the rapidity of their succession.
    1. The tone or sound emitted by anything
    Quotations
  • After the fire a still small . " 1 Kings 19:12
  • Canst thou thunder with a like him? " Job 40:9
  • The floods have lifted up their . " ''Psalms 93:3
  • O Marcus, I am warm"d; my heart Leaps at the trumpet"s . " Addison
    1. The faculty or power of utterance; as, to cultivate the
    2. Language; words; speech; expression; signification of feeling or opinion
  • Quotations
  • I desire to be present with you now, and to change my ; for I stand in doubt of you. " Galatians 4:20
  • My is in my sword. " Shakespeare, Macbeth, V-vii''
  • Let us call on God in the of his church. " Bp. Fell
    1. Opinion or choice expressed; judgment; a vote.
  • Quotations
  • Sicinius. How now, my masters! have you chose this man? / 1st Citizen. He has our voices, sir. " Shakespeare, Coriolanus, II-iii
  • Some laws ordain, and some attend the choice / Of holy senates, and elect by . " Dryden
    1. Command; precept; " now chiefly used in scriptural language.
  • Quotations
  • So shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the of the Lord your God. " Deuteronomy 8:20
    1. One who speaks; a speaker.
  • Quotations
  • A potent of Parliament. " Tennyson
    1. (Grammar) A particular mode of inflecting or conjugating verbs, or a particular form of a verb, by means of which is indicated the relation of the subject of the verb to the action which the verb expresses.
  • verb (voices, voicing, voiced)
    1. (transitive) To give utterance or expression to; to utter; to publish; to announce; to divulge; as, to the sentiments of the nation.
    Quotations
    • Rather assume thy right in silence and . . . then it with claims and challenges. " Bacon
  • It was voiced that the king purposed to put to death Edward Plantagenet. " Bacon
    1. (context, transitive, phonology) To utter with sonant or vocal tone; to pronounce with a narrowed glottis and rapid vibrations of the vocal cords; to speak above a whisper.
    2. (transitive) To fit for producing the proper sounds; to regulate the tone of; as, to the pipes of an organ.
    3. (context, transitive, obsolete) To vote; to elect; to appoint " Shakespeare
    4. (context, intransitive, obsolete) To clamor; to cry out " South
  •      
    vulgar Tweet Definition of vulgar Like Definition of vulgar on Facebook
    adjective (more vulgar, most vulgar)
    1. (classical sense) having to do with ordinary, common people
    2. rude, uncouth, distasteful, obscene
         

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