toneme

[ toh-neem ]
/ ˈtoʊ nim /

noun

a phoneme consisting of a contrastive feature of tone in a tone language: Swedish has two tonemes.

Origin of toneme

First recorded in 1920–25; tone + -eme

Words nearby toneme

tone up, tone-deaf, tone-setter, tone-up, toneless, toneme, toner, tonetic, tonetics, tonette, tong

British Dictionary definitions for toneme

toneme
/ (ˈtəʊniːm) /

noun

linguistics a phoneme that is distinguished from another phoneme only by its tone

Derived forms of toneme

tonemic, adjective

Word Origin for toneme

C20: from tone + -eme