Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of or relating to the production of sound through the mouth.
  • adjective Uttered or produced by the voice.
  • adjective Full of voices; resounding.
  • adjective Tending to express oneself often or freely; outspoken.
  • adjective Of or resembling vowels; vocalic.
  • adjective Voiced.
  • adjective Music Of, relating to, or performed by singing.
  • noun A vocal sound.
  • noun A part or melody that is sung in a musical performance or recording.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to the voice, to speech, or to song; uttered or modulated by the voice,oral.
  • Having a voice; endowed, or as if endowed, with a voice; possessed of utterance or audible expression.
  • In phonetics: Voiced; uttered with voice as distinct from breath; sonant: said of certain alphabetic sounds or letters, as z or v or b as distinguished from s or f or p respectively Having a vowel character or function; vowel.
  • In zoöl, voiced; uttered by the mouth; formed in the vocal organs: distinguished from sonorific: noting the cries of animals, as distinguished from the mechanical noises they may make, as the stridulation of an insect.
  • noun In the Roman Catholic Church, a man who has a right to vote in certain elections.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Phon.) A vocal sound; specifically, a purely vocal element of speech, unmodified except by resonance; a vowel or a diphthong; a tonic element; a tonic; -- distinguished from a subvocal, and a nonvocal.
  • noun (R. C. Ch.) A man who has a right to vote in certain elections.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the voice or speech; having voice; endowed with utterance; full of voice, or voices.
  • adjective Uttered or modulated by the voice; oral.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a vowel or voice sound; also, spoken with tone, intonation, and resonance; sonant; sonorous; -- said of certain articulate sounds.
  • adjective Consisting of, or characterized by, voice, or tone produced in the larynx, which may be modified, either by resonance, as in the case of the vowels, or by obstructive action, as in certain consonants, such as v, l, etc., or by both, as in the nasals m, n, ng; sonant; intonated; voiced. See Voice, and Vowel, also Guide to Pronunciation, §§ 199-202.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a vowel; having the character of a vowel; vowel.
  • adjective (Anat.) The two pairs of mucous membranes that project into the larynx, and which produce the sounds of speech by vibrating under the influence of air exhaled from the lungs. See Larynx, and the Note under Voice, n., 1.
  • adjective (Med.) the perceptible vibration of the chest wall, produced by the transmission of the sonorous vibrations during the act of using the voice.
  • adjective music made by the voice, in distinction from instrumental music; hence, music or tunes set to words, to be performed by the human voice.
  • adjective (Anat.) the part of the air passages above the inferior ligaments of the larynx, including the passages through the nose and mouth.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of or pertaining to the voice or speech; having voice; endowed with utterance; full of voice, or voices
  • adjective Uttered or modulated by the voice; oral; as, vocal melody; vocal prayer, vocal worship.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a vowel or voice sound; also, spoken with tone, intonation, and resonance; sonant; sonorous; -- said of certain articulate sounds
  • adjective phonetics Consisting of, or characterized by, voice, or tone produced in the larynx, which may be modified, either by resonance, as in the case of the vowels, or by obstructive action, as in certain consonants, such as v, l, etc., or by both, as in the nasals m., n., ng; sonant; intonated; voiced. See voice, and vowel
  • adjective phonetics Of or pertaining to a vowel; having the character of a vowel; vowel
  • adjective loud; getting oneself heard.
  • noun phonetics A vocal sound; specifically, a purely vocal element of speech, unmodified except by resonance; a vowel or a diphthong; a tonic element; a tonic; -- distinguished from a subvocal, and a nonvocal
  • noun Roman Catholic Church A man who has a right to vote in certain elections.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective having or using the power to produce speech or sound
  • noun a short musical composition with words
  • noun music intended to be performed by one or more singers, usually with instrumental accompaniment
  • adjective relating to or designed for or using the singing voice
  • adjective full of the sound of voices
  • adjective given to expressing yourself freely or insistently

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin vōcālis, from vōx, vōc-, voice; see wekw- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French vocal < Latin vōcālis.

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