approximantnoun [ C ]
uk/əˈprɒk.sɪ.mənt/us/əˈprɑːk.sə.mənt/specializeda consonant sound in which air is able to flow almost completely freely:
The sounds /w/, /l/, and /r/ are examples of approximants in English.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Linguistics: phonology & phonetics
- alveolar
- articulatory
- aspiration
- assimilation
- bilabial
- clear l
- clipped
- coalescence
- consonant
- onomatopoeia
- palatal
- palato-alveolar
- pharyngeal
- phoneme
- phonemic
- pronounce
- silent letter
- voiced
- vowel
- weak form
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