List of words that comprise a single sound

Languages may or may not allow words that consist of a single phoneme. Of those that do, these are GeneRally vowels that serve as function words (grammar words, like prepositions and pronouns), such as English a and I; interjections, such as English ah! and sh!; or onomatopoeia, such as zzz... for sleeping. However, there are a smaller number of cases of content words that also consist of a single vowel sound. These are especially common in monosyllabic tonal languages such as those of East Asia. Words that consist of a single consonant sound are rarer.

This is a list of content words in various languages that comprise a single sound, in the sense that they can be written with a single letter of the International Phonetic Alphabet not counting diacritics, and that stand on their own. Only national or official languages with more than ten million speakers are included.

Notes:

Function words, interjections and onomatopoeia, proper names, and words which cannot stand on their own (like French a '(s/he) has') are excluded from the list.
The entries roughly follow the alphabetical order of the IPA letters, based on graphic similarity.

Vowels

Written form	Meaning	Language	Notes
ha	s/he has	Italian
ha	third person present auxiliary form	Spanish	See CONTRAST between haber and tener
há	there is/are	Portuguese
	muteness	Japanese	obscure
आ, آ	come on!	Hindi, Persian	used with younger than ego
ả	big sister	Vietnamese	dialectical
an	year	French
are	they are	English	Received pronunciation (actually )
柄	handle, stem	Japanese
絵餌	1. painting, drawing 2. feed, bait	Japanese
he	voilà	Spanish	he aquí 'look here' etc.
é	(s/he) is	Portuguese
ê	to be numb, ashamed	Vietnamese
ề	let's go!	Vietnamese
ế	not saleable, unmarried	Vietnamese
air ere eyre heir		English	Australian and Irish accents (hay, hair, hare as well in h-dropping accents)
haie ais	hedge plank	French
è	(s/he) is	Italian
e	to be afraid	Vietnamese
애	child	Korean	a contraction of
err	to make a mistake	English
ē	to defecate and urinate	Mandarin	colloquial
é	1. chant a poem 2. a goose 3. a moth 4. to blackmail; erroneous	Mandarin
è	1. hungry, to starve 2. evil; fierce; to dislike 3. to hiccup 4. to grip, control 5. harness 6. palate 7. fish hawk 8. calyx	Mandarin
ơ	clay pot, be indifferent	Vietnamese
ở	to reside, to stay	Vietnamese
ợ	to belch	Vietnamese
hie	hie (tool)	French
胃	stomach	Japanese	Also 'boar' below.
이	1. tooth 2. louse 3. two 4. cog	Korean	(Sino-Korean)
偉意医井亥寝藺	1. greatness 2. feelings, meaning 3. medicine 4. a well 5. boar 6. sleep 7. a rush	Japanese	'boar' is or .
yì	1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.	Mandarin
ì	be inert, sluggish	Vietnamese
ị	defecate	Vietnamese
y	to conform	Vietnamese
ỷ	to depend on, Idesia, niche for ancestral tablets	Vietnamese
ý	an idea, intention, circumspection	Vietnamese
eau haut os	water high bones (pl)	French
å	stream	Swedish
尾雄緒	1. tail, ridge 2. a male 3. cord, thread	Japanese
ô	suburb, betel box, umbrella, square	Vietnamese
ồ	to rush	Vietnamese
ổ	nest, bed	Vietnamese
ố	spotted, dirty	Vietnamese
ó	old	Hungarian	used mostly in compounds
오	five	Korean	(Sino-Korean)
å	stream	Swedish
owe		English	Irish accent
œufs	eggs	French
ö	isle	Swedish
외	outside	Korean	pronounced by many
öö	night	Estonian
os	bone (sg)	French
ho	I have	Italian
o	to flirt, paternal aunt/young girl, pork larynx	Vietnamese
ó	eagle	Vietnamese
awe haw haw haw hoar [...] oar ore ore	fearful respect hawthorn berry nictitating membrane for a horse to turn to the left greyish prostitute paddle metal-bearing mineral seaweed	English	h- words in aitch-dropping accents, -r words in non-rhotic accents
un	one	French
août houe houx	August hoe holly	French	août is also pronounced
우	1. suddenly 2. top	Korean	top is pronounced in North Korea
兎	The Hare, in the Chinese zodiac	Japanese
鵜得有	1. cormorant 2. get, obtain 3. bhava	Japanese	(2) is an inflection of eru
wū	1. house, room 2. filth, filthy, to defile 3. tungsten 4. a crow, black 5. shaman, wizard	Mandarin
wú	1. there is not; nothing	Mandarin
wǔ	1. five 2. a dance, to dance, to flourish 3. to seal, to muffle 4.martial, valiant 5. ranks	Mandarin
wù	1. a thing, matter 2. mist, fog 3. an error, to miss, to harm 4. to realize 5. business, to strive for, to devote 6. to hate 7. to meet face to face 8. to warm up	Mandarin
u	mother, swollen, tumour, to swell	Vietnamese
ù	quickly	Vietnamese
ủ	to keep covered for warmth, sullen	Vietnamese
ụ	a mound, basin	Vietnamese
ứ	to climb, to accumulate, to exude	Vietnamese
eu, eue	had	French	past participle of avoir (have)
위	top	Korean	pronounced by many
yū	1. doctrinaire, abstruse 2. silt, to silt up	Mandarin
yú	1. a fish 2. the surplus 3. foolish 4. yu (a wind instrument) 5. to catch fish, usurp 6. to exceed 7. nook	Mandarin
yǔ	1. to give, support 2. rain 3. language 4. feather, wing	Mandarin
yù	1. to encounter, to treat; treatment 2. wish, desire 3. prison, lawsuit 4. recover 5. jade 6. residence; to reside 7. ravine 8. reputation; to praise 9. give birth to, raise 10. to drive a vehicle, to ward off; imperial 11. in advance; to get ready 12. taro 13. region 14. sandpiper	Mandarin

Consonants

Single consonants are much less common as words. Slavic languages have consonantal prepositions, such as Russian к 'to', с 'with', and в 'in', but these cannot stand on their own.

Written form	Meaning	Language
唔嘸	1. not; to hold in the mouth 2. unclear	Cantonese
吾梧蜈鼯鋘	1. I, us 2. Firmiana simplex; support 3. centipede 4. giant flying squirrel 5. sword	Cantonese
五午啎, 忤伍	1. five 2. noon 3. disobedient 5. army; associate with	Cantonese
誤寤晤悟	1. err, error, interfere 2. scarce 3. interview, meet 4. realize	Cantonese

References

English: Oxford English Dictionary 2
French: Petit Robert 1
Italian: Cassell's Italian Dictionary
Japanese: Shinmeikai Kokugo Jiten 4

: Jeffrey's Japanese↔︎English Dictionary Server

Mandarin: DeFrancis, ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, pocket ed.
Vietnamese: The Free Vietnamese Dictionary Project

Main Menu

List of words that comprise a single sound

Vowels

Consonants

References

See also

List of words that comprise a single sound

Vowels

Consonants

References

See also

See Also

List of words that comprise a single phoneme

Roman Phonetic Alphabet for English

Jolly Phonics

Discover Intensive Phonics for Yourself

Phonetics departments at universities