consonant

a speech sound that is not a vowel

• alveolar consonant, dental consonant, alveolar — a consonant articulated with the tip of the tongue near the gum ridge
• stop consonant, stop, occlusive, plosive consonant, plosive speech sound, plosive — a consonant produced by stopping air at some point and suddenly releasing it
• aspirate — a consonant pronounced with aspiration
• labial consonant, labial — a consonant whose articulation involves movement of the lips
• continuant consonant, continuant — consonant articulated by constricting (but not closing) the vocal tract
• sibilant, sibilant consonant — a consonant characterized by a hissing sound (like s or sh)
• affricate, affricate consonant, affricative — a composite speech sound consisting of a stop and a fricative articulated at the same point (as `ch' in `chair' and `j' in `joy')
• geminate — a doubled or long consonant
• surd, voiceless consonant — a consonant produced without sound from the vocal cords
• guttural, guttural consonant — a consonant articulated in the back of the mouth or throat

• phone, speech sound, sound — (phonetics) an individual sound unit of speech without concern as to whether or not it is a phoneme of some language