What does devoicing mean?
Devoicing is a term from phonetics and linguistics that describes the loss of voicing — the vibration of the vocal folds — in a speech sound. Many consonants come in voiced and voiceless pairs, such as /b/ versus /p/ or /z/ versus /s/, and devoicing occurs when a normally voiced sound is pronounced without full vocal-fold vibration. It happens routinely in connected speech: English speakers typically devoice final voiced stops and fricatives slightly before a pause, so the last sound of 'bed' or 'eyes' is only partly voiced. The term also applies to historical sound change, as in German, where word-final voiced obstruents systematically became voiceless, so that 'Tag' rhymes with 'Kakao's final syllable pattern rather than with a voiced /g/. Devoicing matters in language teaching because it can obscure contrasts between words, and in speech technology, where accurate modelling of voicing improves recognition and synthesis.
nounIn phonetics, the process by which a speech sound that is normally voiced, such as a vowel or a voiced consonant, becomes voiceless, as when English final /b/ in 'cab' is partially devoiced. More broadly, any change by which voicing is lost in a sound.
- A phonetic process in which a normally voiced sound loses its voicing, wholly or partly.
- A historical sound change in which a language systematically replaces voiced sounds with their voiceless counterparts (e.g. German final devoicing).
"Final obstruents in English often undergo partial devoicing before a pause."
"The devoicing of word-final stops is one of the most common sound changes across the world's languages."
"Russian learners of English often show incomplete devoicing of final voiced fricatives."
Rarely used; the plural appears mainly in technical linguistic literature referring to distinct instances or types of devoicing across languages or contexts.
"The paper surveys devoicings attested in several Austronesian languages."
Say the word 'cab' and stop before the vowel — your lips still close for the /b/, but your vocal cords fall silent: you have just devoiced it.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of devoicing
The word devoicing is formed from the prefix de-, indicating reversal or removal, combined with voicing, the noun from the verb voice, which itself derives from Old French vois and Latin vox, meaning 'voice' or 'sound'. As a linguistic term it arose in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries alongside modern scientific phonetics, when scholars needed precise labels for processes affecting vocal-fold vibration. It shares its Latin root vox with words such as vocal, vocable, and vocation, all ultimately traceable to the Proto-Indo-European root *wek-, relating to speaking.
Related word forms
How devoicing is actually used
A technical term used chiefly in linguistics and phonetics; not part of everyday vocabulary. It appears most often in discussions of phonology, language teaching, and historical sound change, and may refer either to an optional phonetic process in a speaker's pronunciation or to a systematic change in a language's history.
Easily confused with devoicing
Voicing is the addition of vocal-fold vibration to a sound, whereas devoicing is its loss or removal.