1. the smallest units of sound in a language that can distinguish one word from another
Usage: linguistics; plural of phoneme

Examples

• The words ‘cat’ and ‘bat’ differ by only one phoneme.
• English has approximately 44 phonemes.
• Children learn to distinguish between different phonemes as they develop language skills.
• The phonemes /p/ and /b/ are both consonant sounds.
• Linguists study how phonemes combine to form words.
• Some languages have more phonemes than others.
• The teacher explained how phonemes help us understand pronunciation.