vocable

From French vocable or Latin vocābulum, from Latin vocō (“I call”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvəʊkəbl̩/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈvoʊkəbl̩/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

vocable (plural vocables)

1. (linguistics) A word or utterance, especially with reference to its form rather than its meaning.
   • 1974, Anthony Burgess, The Clockwork Testament:

     Without words and almost with the seriousness of asylum nurses they at once set upon an unsavoury-looking matron who began to cry out Mediterranean vocables of distress.

   • 1925, John Buchan, The House of the Four Winds:

     At first the man puzzled; then he smiled. He pronounced a string of uncouth vocables.

2. (music) A syllable or sound without specific meaning, used together with or in place of actual words in a song.
   • a. 2010, Victoria Lindsay Levine, Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Native American Music"

     Many Native American songs employ vocables, syllables that do not have referential meaning. These may be used to frame words or may be inserted among them; in some cases, they constitute the entire song text.

vocable (not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Able to be uttered.

   a vocable marker

• utterable, voiceable

• vocabulary
• vocability

Learned borrowing from Latin vocābulum.

• IPA^(key): /vɔ.kabl/

• Audio

  (file)

vocable m (plural vocables)

1. term

• vocabulaire

• “vocable”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.