Phonetics and Prosody. Of a sound: Pronounced with less force than the adjacent sound or sounds. Of accent, stress: Having relatively little…

‘Open’ in sound. Obsolete.

Of a language: pronounced with little movement of the lips (see quot. 1668) Obsolete. rare.

Linguistics. Of a letter: not itself sounded in the pronunciation of a word, but serving to lengthen the preceding vowel. Cf. silent, adj. 3c. Obs…

Of the mouth: rounded in the act of speech; (of the voice or an utterance) sonorous, full-toned; (of literary style) inflated, grandiloquent. Cf. or…

Having a full tone or sound; sonorous.

Phonetics. Produced by the same vocal organ or organs; sharing a specific type of articulation.

Of vocal or musical sounds: lengthening the notes or vowels, drawling.

Phonetics. Of a sound (usually a vowel): that is articulated with the velum raised, so that there is no nasal resonance. Cf. nasal, adj. 2a.

Of a sound: indistinct, indefinite, obscure. Cf. neutral vowel n. at compounds. rare.

transferred and figurative. Of sounds: (see quots.); spec. in Phonetics, open, saturated (opposed to diffuse).

Philology. Applied to a word or phrase pronounced more slowly than in normal speech. Cf. allegro, adj. 2.