phon
Greeksound, voice
About This Root
From Greek phōnē (sound, voice). Shapes both everyday words (phone, telephone, microphone) and musical/literary terms (symphony, cacophony, euphony). Often combines with prefixes that describe sound quality — pleasant (eu-), harsh (caco-), or harmonious (sym-). Phonetics is the scientific study of speech sounds.
Associated Words · 13
phone
a device for making calls; to call someone
telephone
A device for speaking with someone at a distance; to make a phone call
microphone
A device that converts sound into electrical signals
symphony
A long, complex orchestral composition
cacophony
A harsh, unpleasant mixture of discordant sounds
symphonic
Relating to or characteristic of a symphony
phonetic
Relating to the sounds of spoken language
videophone
A telephone that transmits both audio and video
gramophone
An old-fashioned record player
cacophonous
Producing harsh, unpleasant, or discordant sounds
euphonious
Pleasant and agreeable to the ear; harmonious in sound
euphony
A pleasing, harmonious quality of sound, especially in speech
phonetics
The study of the physical sounds of human speech