| Verb | 1. | sound out - speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way; "She pronounces French words in a funny way"; "I cannot say `zip wire'"; "Can the child sound out this complicated word?" twang - pronounce with a nasal twang devoice - utter with tense vocal chords raise - pronounce (vowels) by bringing the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth; "raise your `o'" lilt - articulate in a very careful and rhythmic way palatalise, palatalize - pronounce a consonant with the tongue against the palate nasalise, nasalize - speak nasally or through the nose; "In this part of the country, people tend to nasalize" mispronounce, misspeak - pronounce a word incorrectly; "She mispronounces many Latinate words" aspirate - pronounce with aspiration; of stop sounds retroflex - articulate (a consonant) with the tongue curled back against the palate; "Indian accents can be characterized by the fact that speakers retroflex their consonants" subvocalise, subvocalize - articulate without making audible sounds; "she was reading to herself and merely subvocalized" syllabise, syllabize - utter with distinct articulation of each syllable; "The poet syllabized the verses he read" drawl - lengthen and slow down or draw out; "drawl one's vowels" lisp - speak with a lisp accent, accentuate, stress - put stress on; utter with an accent; "In Farsi, you accent the last syllable of each word" vowelise, vowelize, vocalise, vocalize - pronounce as a vowel; "between two consonants, this liquid is vowelized" click - produce a click; "Xhosa speakers click" trill - pronounce with a trill, of the phoneme `r'; "Some speakers trill their r's" sibilate - pronounce with an initial sibilant flap - pronounce with a flap, of alveolar sounds explode - cause to burst as a result of air pressure; of stop consonants like /p/, /t/, and /k/ roll - pronounce with a roll, of the phoneme /r/; "She rolls her r's" |
| 2. | sound out - try to learn someone's opinions and intentions; "I have to sound out the new professor" |