1. any of the variant forms of a phoneme that do not change the meaning of a word
Usage: linguistics
2. a person whose native language is different from that of the majority in their country or region
Usage: Canadian

Examples

• The aspirated ‘p’ in ‘pin’ and the unaspirated ‘p’ in ‘spin’ are allophones of the same phoneme.
• Students learn to identify allophones in their phonetics class.
• These sound variations are allophones because they don’t change word meaning.
• The government provides services for allophone immigrants.
• Allophone students often need additional language support in school.
• Quebec has programs specifically designed for allophone communities.