phonon
/ˈfoʊ.nɑn/noun
phonon is a noun meaning “The quantum of acoustic or vibrational energy (sound), considered a discrete particle rather than a wave” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-O-N-O-N and has 2 syllables, and it appears about once in every 6 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data). The plural of phonon is phonons.
What does phonon mean?
noun
- 1
The quantum of acoustic or vibrational energy (sound), considered a discrete particle rather than a wave.
- 2
A unit of phonemics.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce phonon?
- US /ˈfoʊ.nɑn/
- US /ˈfoʊ.nɔn/
Phonon has 2 syllables (counted from the pronunciation).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-phonon.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of phonon
- phonons plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is phonon?
Phonon appears about once in every 6 million words in written English, the 74,122nd 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).
Phonon in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense quantum of acoustic energy:
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 phonon come from?
From phono- + -on. From Ancient Greek φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). Modelled after photon.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).