plosive
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A speech sound produced by opening a closed vocal tract.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
plohsivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈploʊsɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
phonetics
A speech sound produced by opening a closed vocal tract.
adjective
phonetics
Produced from opening a previously closed oral passage.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (phonetics) A speech sound produced by opening a closed vocal tract.
Used this way, plosive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Formal
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Formal and precise
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
Comfortable in writing and prepared speech; in casual conversation a shorter everyday word usually sounds more natural.
Nearby words
- occlusive , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it.
A consonant produced by stopping the flow of air at some point and suddenly releasing it.
A stop consonant articulated by releasing pressure at the glottis.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: speech sound produced by opening a closed vocal tract
Antonyms
Sense: speech sound produced by opening a closed vocal tract
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.