vowel

noun

1. A sound produced by the vocal cords with relatively little restriction of the oral cavity, forming the prominent sound of a syllable.

   “Hawaiian has either five or twenty-five vowels, depending on how they are counted.”

2. A letter or diacritic representing the sound of a vowel; in English, the vowels are a, e, i, o, u, y (sometimes), and w (rarely).

   “The word facetiously is spelled with all six vowels in alphabetical order.”

   “The word cwm, borrowed from Welsh, is an example of the letter w serving as a vowel in English.”

verb

1. To add vowel points to a consonantal script (e.g. niqqud in Hebrew or harakat in Arabic).

   “However it should be vowelled – perhaps ‘Almaqah’ – his name seems to be composed of ‘Il’, the general name of the paramount Semitic deity […], plus another element that is possibly from the Sabaic verb wqh, ‘to command’ […].”