Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound that changes meaning.

• Ex: “Fan” and “van” differ only in /f/ and /v/, and they are different words.
• Ex: Japanese speakers hear the /l/ in “light” and the /r/ in “right” as one sound, but English speakers hear two phonemes.
• Ex: In Mandarin, “ma” said with a rising pitch and “ma” said with a falling pitch are two different words.

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Last updated: November 5, 2026 at 11:06 AM