phoneme
/ˈfoʊnim/
the smallest unit of sound that distinguishes meaning
phoneme in a sentence
“The phonemes /p/ and /b/ distinguish 'pat' from 'bat'.”
Origin of phoneme
Greek phonema (sound uttered)
Related Words
morpheme
the smallest meaningful unit in a language
semantics
the study of meaning in language; what words and sentences signify
syntax
the rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences
pragmatics
how context influences the interpretation of meaning
morphology
the study of word formation and internal structure
deixis
words whose meaning depends on context (I, here, now, this)