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allophone

/ˈæləˌfoʊn/noun, adjective

allophone is spelled A-L-L-O-P-H-O-N-E: 9 letters and 3 syllables. It appears about once in every 37 million words in written English, the 187,122nd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, allophone means “Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of allophone is allophones.

How many letters and syllables are in allophone?

Letters9: A-L-L-O-P-H-O-N-E
Syllables3 (from its American pronunciation)
In writingabout once in every 37 million words; the 187,122nd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is allophone?

Allophone appears about once in every 37 million words in written English, the 187,122nd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce allophone?

  • UK /ˈaləˌfəʊn/
  • US /ˈæləˌfoʊn/
  • Australia /ˈæləˌfəʉn/

Allophone has 3 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-allophone.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of allophone

  • allophones plural
  • more allophone comparative
  • most allophone superlative

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does allophone mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    Any of two or more alternative pronunciations for a phoneme.

    In some languages, [ʋ] is an allophone of /v/.

  2. 2

    A person whose mother tongue is one other than that spoken by the majority.

  3. 3

    CanadaA person whose mother tongue is neither English, French, nor (sometimes) an indigenous language.

adjective

  1. 1

    CanadaOf or relating to those whose mother tongue is neither English, French, nor (sometimes) an indigenous language of Canada.

  2. 2

    That which is of a language other than that spoken by the majority.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Allophone in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchallophone (alternative pronunciation for a phoneme)
GermanAllophon, Allofon, Phonemvariante, Fonemvariante, Lautvariante (alternative pronunciation for a phoneme), Allophoner (person whose mother tongue is one other than…)
Portuguesealófono (alternative pronunciation for a phoneme)
Spanishalófono (alternative pronunciation for a phoneme), alófona (person whose mother tongue is one other than…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does allophone come from?

From allo- (“different”) + -phone.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after allophone