vowel

Universal Words noun (phonetics) 1 a speech sound in which the mouth is open and the tongue is not touching the top of the mouth, the teeth, etc., for example /a:, e, o:/ : vowel sounds * Each language has a different vowel system. 2 a letter that represents a vowel sound. In English the vowels are a, e, i, o, and u. compareCONSONANT seealsoDIPHTHONG