consonants

3 definitions • 1 example

one of the speech sounds or letters of the alphabet that is not a vowel. Consonants are pronounced by stopping the air from flowing easily through the mouth, especially by closing the lips or touching the teeth with the tongue.

a speech sound produced by human beings when the breath that flows out through the mouth is blocked by the teeth, tongue, or lips

A consonant is also a letter that represents a sound produced in this way:

Except for the vowels in English – a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y – all the letters are consonants.