Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Vocable

Vo′ca-ble

,
Noun.
[L.
vocabulum
an appellation, designation, name, fr.
vocare
to call, fr.
vox
,
vocis
, a voice, a word: cf. F.
vocable
. See
Voice
.]
A word; a term; a name; specifically, a word considered as composed of certain sounds or letters, without regard to its meaning.
Swamped near to drowning in a tide of ingenious
vocables
.
Carlyle.

Definition 2024


vocable

vocable

English

Noun

vocable (plural vocables)

  1. (linguistics) A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
    • 1974, Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament:
      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.
    • 1925, John Buchan, "The House of the Four Winds":
      At first the man puzzled; then he smiled. He pronounced a string of uncouth vocables.
  2. (music) A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.
    • Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Native American Music;
      Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text.

Translations

Adjective

vocable (not comparable)

  1. (linguistics) Able to be uttered.
    a vocable marker, a vocable thing

Synonyms

Translations


French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vocabulum, from vocare (call).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /vɔkabl/

Noun

vocable m (plural vocables)

  1. term