phonetically
/fəˈnɛtɪkli/adverb
phonetically is an adverb meaning “In the way it sounds, particularly: written to describe the sound rather than the dictionary spelling” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-O-N-E-T-I-C-A-L-L-Y and has 4 syllables, and it appears about once in every 3 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does phonetically mean?
adverb
- 1
In the way it sounds, particularly: written to describe the sound rather than the dictionary spelling.
The hard words in the passage have been spelled phonetically.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce phonetically?
- UK /fəˈnɛtɪkli/
- US /fəˈnɛtɪkli/
- US [fəˈnɛɾɪkli]
Phonetically has 4 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Neøn-phonetically.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of phonetically
- more phonetically comparative
- most phonetically superlative
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is phonetically?
Phonetically appears about once in every 3 million words in written English, the 52,337th 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 abbreviate phonetically?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of phonetically: ph.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Phonetically in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense in the way it sounds:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | phonétiquement |
| Portuguese | foneticamente |
| Spanish | fonéticamente |
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 phonetically come from?
From phonetic + -ally.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).