vocable

From French vocable or Latin vocābulum, from Latin vocō (“I call”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvəʊkəbl̩/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvoʊkəbl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

vocable (plural vocables)

1. (linguistics) A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
   • 1974, Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament:

     Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress.

   • 1925, John Buchan, The House of the Four Winds:

     At first the man puzzled; then he smiled. He pronounced a string of uncouth vocables.

2. (music) A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.
   • a. 2010, Victoria Lindsay Levine, Native American Music, Encyclopaedia Britannica:

     Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text.

vocable (not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Able to be uttered.

   a vocable marker

• utterable, voiceable

• vocabulary
• vocability

Learned borrowing from Latin vocābulum.

• IPA^(key): /vɔ.kabl/

• Audio

  (file)

vocable m (plural vocables)

1. term

• vocabulaire

• “vocable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.