[W/K] :: vowel

  Vowel \Vow"el\, a.
     Of or pertaining to a vowel; vocal.
     [1913 Webster]

  Vowel \Vow"el\, n. [F. voyelle, or an OF. form without y, L.
     vocalis (sc. littera), from vocalis sounding, from vox,
     vocis, a voice, sound. See Vocal.] (Phon.)
     A vocal, or sometimes a whispered, sound modified by
     resonance in the oral passage, the peculiar resonance in each
     case giving to each several vowel its distinctive character
     or quality as a sound of speech; -- distinguished from a
     consonant in that the latter, whether made with or without
     vocality, derives its character in every case from some kind
     of obstructive action by the mouth organs. Also, a letter or
     character which represents such a sound. See Guide to
     Pronunciation, [sect][sect] 5, 146-149.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Note: In the English language, the written vowels are a, e,
           i, o, u, and sometimes w and y. The spoken vowels are
           much more numerous.
           [1913 Webster]
  
     Close vowel. See under Close, a.
  
     Vowel point. See under Point, n.
        [1913 Webster]

  vowel
       n 1: a speech sound made with the vocal tract open [syn: vowel
            sound] [ant: consonant]
       2: a letter of the alphabet standing for a spoken vowel

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "vowel":
     accented, allophone, alveolar, apical, apico-alveolar,
     apico-dental, articulated, articulation, aspiration, assimilated,
     assimilation, back, barytone, bilabial, broad, cacuminal, central,
     cerebral, check, checked, close, consonant, consonantal,
     continuant, dental, diphthong, dissimilated, dissimilation, dorsal,
     epenthetic vowel, explosive, flat, front, glide, glossal, glottal,
     glottalization, guttural, hard, heavy, high, intonated, labial,
     labialization, labiodental, labiovelar, laryngeal, lateral, lax,
     light, lingual, liquid, low, manner of articulation, mid,
     modification, monophthong, monophthongal, morphophoneme, mute,
     muted, narrow, nasal, nasalized, occlusive, open, oxytone, palatal,
     palatalized, parasitic vowel, peak, pharyngeal, pharyngealization,
     pharyngealized, phone, phoneme, phonemic, phonetic, phonic, pitch,
     pitched, plosive, posttonic, prothetic vowel, retroflex, rounded,
     segmental phoneme, semivowel, soft, sonant, sonority, speech sound,
     stop, stopped, stressed, strong, surd, syllabic, syllabic nucleus,
     syllabic peak, syllable, tense, thick, throaty, tonal, tonic,
     transition sound, triphthong, twangy, unaccented, unrounded,
     unstressed, velar, vocable, vocal, vocalic, vocoid, voice, voiced,
     voiced sound, voiceless, voiceless sound, voicing, vowellike, weak,
     wide