English

Noun

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.
   • Encyclopaedia Brittanica, 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.

Translations

Adjective

vocable ‎(not comparable)

1. (linguistics) Able to be uttered.

   a vocable marker, a vocable thing

Synonyms

• utterable, voiceable

Translations

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin vocabulum, from vocare ‎(“call”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /vɔkabl/

Noun

vocable m ‎(plural vocables)

1. term