formant
/ˈfɔː(ɹ)mənt/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.75 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A band of frequencies in a sound spectrum that have greater intensity and determine the quality of a sound, especially the resonant frequencies of the vocal tract that determine the quality of vowels and sonorant consonants.
Example Sentences
- "The resonances of the vocal tract are called formants. Trying to hear the separate formants in a vowel is difficult. We are so used to a vowel being a single meaningful entity that it is difficult to consider it as a sound with separable bits. But it is possible to say vowels so that some of their component parts are more obvious."
- "In natural speech, of course, formants are always present during vowels, and this suggests a reason for the preference for linguistic tone on vowels rather than, say, on fricatives. Fricatives have no formant structure, and thus detection of linguistically significant pitch on a fricative might be impaired."
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
- Root: fōrmāns