phonetic

Meanings

Adjective

• Relating to the sounds of spoken language.
• Relating to phones (as opposed to phonemes)

Noun

• In such writing systems as the Chinese writing system, the portion of a phono-semantic character that provides an indication of its pronunciation; contrasted with semantic (which is usually the radical).

Origin

• Borrowed from Latin phōnēticus, from Ancient Greek φωνητῐκός.