phoneme

Noun

Any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a language.
(linguistics) one of a small set of speech sounds that are distinguished by the speakers of a particular language
An indivisible unit of sound in a given language. A phoneme is an abstraction of the physical speech sounds (phones) and may encompass several different phones.

Examples

Learning the basic PHONEME combinations improved his ability to spot short words.

Origin / Etymology

From Ancient Greek φώνημα (phṓnēma, “sound”), from φωνέω (phōnéō, “to sound”), from φωνή (phōnḗ, “sound”). By surface analysis, phone (“speech sound”) + -eme (“unit”).

Scrabble Score: 14

phoneme: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
phoneme: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
phoneme: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 16

phoneme: valid Words With Friends Word