Vocalize

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /ˈvoÊŠ.kÉ™.laɪz/

Alternative forms

• vocalise non-Oxford British spelling

Origin

vocal + -ize

Full definition of vocalize

Verb

1. To express with the voice, to utter.
• 1876, Walt Whitman, preface to the 1876 edition of Leaves of GrassFollowing the modern spirit, the real poems of the present, ever solidifying and expanding into the future, must vocalize the vastness and splendor and reality with which scientism has invested man and the universe,...
2. (of animals) To produce noises or calls from the throat.We could hear the monkeys vocalizing, though we could not see them.
3. (music) To sing without using words.
4. (linguistics) To turn a consonant into a vowel.
5. (linguistics, dated) To make a sound voiced rather than voiceless.
6. (linguistics) To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew)

Synonyms

• (of humans) outspeak rarely used as a synonym of vocalize

Derived terms

• vocalization