vowel
/ˈvaʊ.əl/noun, verb
vowel is spelled V-O-W-E-L: 5 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, vowel means “A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of vowel is vowels.
How many letters and syllables are in vowel?
| Letters | 5: V-O-W-E-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is vowel?
Vowel appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th 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 vowel?
- /ˈvaʊ.əl/
- /vaʊl/
Vowel has 2 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-vowel.ogg, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-vowel.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with vowel?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as vowel.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: wolve.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of vowel
- vowels plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- voweling US, participle, present
- vowelling UK, participle, present
- voweled US, participle, past
- vowelled UK, participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does vowel mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.
Hawaiian has either five or twenty-five vowels, depending on how they are counted.
- 2
A letter or diacritic representing the sound of a vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y (sometimes), and w (rarely).
The word facetiously is spelled with all six vowels in alphabetical order.
verb
- 1
To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate vowel?
Wiktionary records one abbreviation of vowel: V.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Vowel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | voyelle |
| German | Vokal, Vokallaut, Selbstlaut , Vokalbuchstabe |
| Portuguese | vogal |
| Spanish | vocal , letra vocal |
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 vowel come from?
From Middle English vowel, from Old French vouel, a variant of voyeul (whence French voyelle), from Latin vōcālis (“voiced”), itself a semantic loan of Koine Greek φωνῆεν (phōnêen). Doublet of vocal and vocalis.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).