1
: of, relating to, or producing sound : acoustic
2
a
: of or relating to the sounds of speech
b
: of or relating to phonics
Examples of phonic in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Whales produce sounds by sending air from their nasal tract past their phonic lips – a pair of vibrating muscular folds that act like our voice box.
—
Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2012
French, which has a much more restricted phonic range than English, generates puns naturally—whole sentences can be turned into homonymic equivalents with very different meanings.
—Luc Sante, Harper's magazine, 10 Jan. 2019
An orca hears with its face and talks with its head: Plunging below 100 feet, K35 used phonic lips on either side of his blowhole as deftly as a horn player.
—The Seattle Times, 19 May 2019
The video, diving into the phonic craze, represented a rarity for the Trump White House, a jokey parody perhaps targeted at social media that did not delve deeply into anything overtly political.
—Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post, 17 May 2018
Tics can also be phonic such as grunting, throat-clearing or sniffing.
—Kate Murphy, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2017
Jeremiah Lockwood Friday, February 2, 7:00pm & 8:30pm, Joe Henderson Lab
Lockwood mixes blues and multi-phonic African singing with the cantorial tradition of his Jewish heritage.
—Jim Harrington, The Mercury News, 15 June 2017
The clicks, produced in organs known as phonic lips at rates of up to 1,000 clicks per second, are inaudible to the human ear, but detectable through special, underwater microphones.
—Joanna Klein, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2016
Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 22 Oct. 2012
French, which has a much more restricted phonic range than English, generates puns naturally—whole sentences can be turned into homonymic equivalents with very different meanings.
—Luc Sante, Harper's magazine, 10 Jan. 2019
An orca hears with its face and talks with its head: Plunging below 100 feet, K35 used phonic lips on either side of his blowhole as deftly as a horn player.
—The Seattle Times, 19 May 2019
The video, diving into the phonic craze, represented a rarity for the Trump White House, a jokey parody perhaps targeted at social media that did not delve deeply into anything overtly political.
—Eli Rosenberg, Washington Post, 17 May 2018
Tics can also be phonic such as grunting, throat-clearing or sniffing.
—Kate Murphy, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2017
Jeremiah Lockwood Friday, February 2, 7:00pm & 8:30pm, Joe Henderson Lab
Lockwood mixes blues and multi-phonic African singing with the cantorial tradition of his Jewish heritage.
—Jim Harrington, The Mercury News, 15 June 2017
The clicks, produced in organs known as phonic lips at rates of up to 1,000 clicks per second, are inaudible to the human ear, but detectable through special, underwater microphones.
—Joanna Klein, New York Times, 9 Nov. 2016
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'phonic.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near phonic
Cite this Entry
“Phonic.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phonic. Accessed 2 Nov. 2024.
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