Relating or pertaining to the human voice as used in speech; concerning articulate sounds, their mode of production, relations, combinations, and changes: as, phonetic science; phonetic decay.
Representing articulate sounds or utterance: as, a phonetic mode of writing (in contradistinction to an ideographic or pictorial mode); a phonetic mode of spelling (in contradistinction to a traditional, historical, or so-called etymological mode, such as the current spelling of English, in which letters representing or supposed to represent former and obsolete utterance are retained or inserted according to chances of time, caprice, or imperfect knowledge).
In entomology, as used by Kirby, noting the collar or prothorax of a hymenopterous insect when it embraces the mesothorax and the posterior angles cover the mesothoracic or so-called vocal spiracles.