adjective

1. of speech sounds or the production or transcription of these
2. of phonetics
3. conforming to pronunciation phonetic spelling
4. of or involving the relatively small differences between related speech sounds, which can be perceived but do not change meaning the differences between the sounds represented by p in “tip” and “pit” are phonetic, since substituting one for the other would not change the meanings of the two words

Etymology: ModL phoneticus < Gr phōnētikos < phōnētos, to be spoken < phōnein, to speak < phōnē, a sound: see phono-