vowel: Quick Facts

Written and fact-checked by

The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Photos

frequencies of formants

A diagram showing side views of the mouth and tongue positions for eight English vowel sounds: heed, hid, head, had, hod, hawed, hood, and who'd, with each vowel illustrated in a separate labeled box.

See All Images →

Topics

lax vowel monophthong cardinal vowel wide vowel unrounded vowel tense vowel narrow vowel midvowel low vowel high vowel suprasegmental Syllable Phoneme

Dig Deeper: More Articles That Discuss This Topic