Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

cardinal vowel

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.23 in modern English

Syllables: car-di-nal vow-el
IPA

22

Scrabble Score

13

Letters

4

Syllables

11

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

a vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme position, either front or back, high or low.

Etymology

The term was coined by the British phoneticians Daniel Jones in the early 20th century.

Inflected Forms

cardinal vowels (plural)

Questions

What does cardinal vowel mean?: a vowel sound produced when the tongue is in an extreme position, either front or back, high or low.
Where does cardinal vowel come from?: The term was coined by the British phoneticians Daniel Jones in the early 20th century.

How to pronounce cardinal vowel

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “cardinal vowel”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
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Repeat and practice — Say “cardinal vowel” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.