phonics

/ˈfɑnɪks/

/ˈfɒnɪks/

Phonics is the science of sound. It’s also a way of teaching reading by focusing on how letters and groups of letters of the alphabet look and sound.

Phonics comes from the Greek word phone for "sound." Phone is a familiar word as the thing you talk to people on, but it also shows up in other sound-related words like phonology (the scientific study of sounds in languages) and phonograph (an old device for playing music). Phonics is a way of teaching beginning readers to match letters and sounds. By associating letters with sounds, phonics helps people hear and say the words they’re seeing on the page.

Definitions of phonics

1. noun

   teaching reading by training beginners to associate letters with their sound values
   type of:

   teaching reading

   teaching beginners to read
2. noun

   the study of the physical properties of sound
   synonyms: acoustics

   types:

   harmonics

   the study of musical sound

   phonetics

   the branch of acoustics concerned with speech processes including its production and perception and acoustic analysis

   type of:

   physical science, physics

   the physical properties, phenomena, and laws of something