phonotactics
/ˈfoʊnəˌtæktɪks/noun
phonotactics is a noun meaning “A branch of phonology that deals with the restrictions a language applies to combinations of phonemes” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled P-H-O-N-O-T-A-C-T-I-C-S, and it appears about once in every 65 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does phonotactics mean?
noun
- 1
A branch of phonology that deals with the restrictions a language applies to combinations of phonemes.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce phonotactics?
- UK /ˈfəʊnə(ʊ)ˌtaktɪks/
- US /ˈfoʊnəˌtæktɪks/
- US /ˈfoʊnoʊˌtæktɪks/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-phonotactics.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
How common is phonotactics?
Phonotactics appears about once in every 65 million words in written English, the 252,559th 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).
Phonotactics in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense branch of phonology:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | phonotactique, phonotaxe |
| German | Phonotaktik, Phonotagmatik, Phonosyntax |
| Portuguese | fonotática |
| Spanish | fonotaxis, fonosintaxis, fonotáctica |
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.