SOUND OUT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sound out mean? 

• SOUND OUT (verb)
  The verb SOUND OUT has 2 senses:

1. speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way

2. try to learn someone's opinions and intentions

  Familiarity information: SOUND OUT used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SOUND OUT (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Speak, pronounce, or utter in a certain way

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

articulate; enounce; enunciate; pronounce; say; sound out

Context example:

Can the child sound out this complicated word?

"Sound out" entails doing...:

mouth; speak; talk; utter; verbalise; verbalize (express in speech)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "sound out"):

syllabise; syllabize (utter with distinct articulation of each syllable)

roll (pronounce with a roll, of the phoneme /r/)

explode (cause to burst as a result of air pressure; of stop consonants like /p/, /t/, and /k/)

flap (pronounce with a flap, of alveolar sounds)

sibilate (pronounce with an initial sibilant)

trill (pronounce with a trill, of the phoneme 'r')

click (produce a click)

vocalise; vocalize; vowelise; vowelize (pronounce as a vowel)

accent; accentuate; stress (put stress on; utter with an accent)

lisp (speak with a lisp)

labialise; labialize; round (pronounce with rounded lips)

drawl (lengthen and slow down or draw out)

twang (pronounce with a nasal twang)

subvocalise; subvocalize (articulate without making audible sounds)

retroflex (articulate (a consonant) with the tongue curled back against the palate)

sound; vocalise; vocalize; voice (utter with vibrating vocal chords)

aspirate (pronounce with aspiration; of stop sounds)

mispronounce; misspeak (pronounce a word incorrectly)

nasalise; nasalize (speak nasally or through the nose)

nasalise; nasalize (pronounce with a lowered velum)

palatalise; palatalize (pronounce a consonant with the tongue against the palate)

lilt (articulate in a very careful and rhythmic way)

raise (pronounce (vowels) by bringing the tongue closer to the roof of the mouth)

devoice (utter with tense vocal chords)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 2

Meaning:

Try to learn someone's opinions and intentions

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

check out; feel out; sound out

Context example:

I have to sound out the new professor

Hypernyms (to "sound out" is one way to...):

query; question (pose a question)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

 Context examples 

All I ask is your word, Cap'n Smollett, to let me safe and sound out of this here stockade, and one minute to get out o' shot before a gun is fired.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Now that, through the intelligence and activity of Mr. Malone (I cannot help quoting the words), we have got our chart, our one and only immediate duty is to get ourselves safe and sound out of this awful place.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)