Definitions

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

  • intransitive verb To produce by using the vocal organs.
  • intransitive verb To give voice to; articulate.
  • intransitive verb To mark (a vowelless Hebrew text, for example) with vowel points.
  • intransitive verb To change (a consonant) into a vowel during articulation.
  • intransitive verb To voice.
  • intransitive verb To use the vocal organs to produce sounds.
  • intransitive verb To use another organ, such as a swim bladder, to produce sounds.
  • intransitive verb Music To sing.
  • intransitive verb Linguistics To be changed into a vowel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To form into voice; make vocal.
  • To utter with voice and not merely with breath; make sonant: as, f vocalized is equivalent to verb
  • To write with vowel points; insert the vowels in, as in the writing of the Semitic languages.
  • To use the voice; speak; sing; hum.
  • Also spelled vocalise.

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

  • transitive verb To form into voice; to make vocal or sonant; to give intonation or resonance to.
  • transitive verb To practice singing on the vowel sounds.

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

  • verb To express with the voice, to utter.
  • verb of animals To produce noises or calls from the throat.
  • verb music To sing without using words.
  • verb linguistics To turn a consonant into a vowel.
  • verb linguistics, dated To make a sound voiced rather than voiceless.
  • verb linguistics To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew)

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

  • verb pronounce as a vowel
  • verb utter with vibrating vocal chords
  • verb utter speech sounds
  • verb express or state clearly
  • verb sing (each note a scale or in a melody) with the same vowel

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

vocal +‎ -ize

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word vocalize.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.