What does rearticulation mean?
Rearticulation is the act of articulating or expressing something again. It may describe a speaker returning to an earlier point to clarify an argument, an actor deliberately repeating a difficult sound, or a performer restating a musical phrase with greater emphasis. In speech science and phonetics, the term has a narrower technical meaning: the renewed movement of the lips, tongue, jaw, or other vocal organs during a speech sound, often where adjacent sounds overlap in their articulation. The word is therefore more specific than simple repetition because it suggests active, intelligible production rather than mere recurrence. It is most often encountered in technical writing about speech, pronunciation, rhetoric, and communication, but it is also useful in ordinary discussion when the repetition of a statement or idea serves to emphasize or clarify it.
nounThe act of articulating something again, especially a sound, speech sound, idea, or argument. In linguistics, it refers to a second or renewed movement or constriction of the vocal organs during the production of a speech sound.
- The act of expressing, explaining, or presenting something again, especially a speech sound, statement, argument, or idea.
- A second or renewed adjustment of the speech organs during the production of a sound, as when one speech sound overlaps with the movement required for an adjacent sound.
"The speaker's rearticulation of the central argument made the case easier to follow."
"Repeated rearticulation of the same difficult phrase gradually improved her pronunciation."
"The phonetics laboratory used slow playback to analyze the rearticulation occurring between the consonants."
Plural forms are used for separate instances of renewed or repeated articulation.
"The recordings revealed subtle rearticulations between adjacent speech sounds."
In phonetics, rearticulation explains why neighboring speech sounds can be produced with distinct movements of the lips and tongue.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does rearticulation come from?
Rearticulation combines the prefix re-, meaning “again,” with articulation. Articulation ultimately comes from Latin articulare, a verb derived from articulus, meaning “joined by a joint” or “expressed clearly in distinct parts.” The prefixed form developed in English in contexts involving repeated or renewed expression, including the technical phonetic sense.
Related word forms
How rearticulation is actually used
In general discussion, rearticulation often emphasizes a deliberate repetition or restatement. In phonetics and speech science, it has a more technical meaning involving the renewed movement of articulators. The doubled 'a' reflects the prefix re- followed by articulation.
Easily confused with rearticulation
Articulation is the general process of producing articulate sounds or expressing ideas clearly, whereas rearticulation specifically involves articulating or expressing something again.