noun
- speech sounds that can be prolonged without interruption, such as vowels, fricatives, and nasals
Usage: linguistics; phonetics
Examples
- The linguist explained that continuants like /s/ and /m/ can be held for several seconds.
- Vowels are the most common type of continuants in English.
- Students practiced distinguishing between continuants and stop consonants.
- The speech therapist focused on continuants to help with pronunciation.
- Fricatives such as /f/ and /v/ are classified as continuants.
- The phonetics textbook devoted a chapter to continuants and their properties.