<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Look up phoneme in Wiktionary, the free dictionary . </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> Look up phoneme in Wiktionary, the free dictionary . </Td> </Tr> <P> A phoneme (/ ˈfoʊniːm /) is one of the units of sound (or gesture in the case of sign languages, see chereme) that distinguish one word from another in a particular language . For example, in most dialects of English, the sound patterns / θɪn / (thin) and / dɪn / (din) are two separate words distinguished by the substitution of one phoneme, / θ /, for another phoneme, / d / . (Two words like this that differ in meaning through a contrast of a single phoneme form what is called a minimal pair). In many other languages these would be interpreted as exactly the same set of phonemes (i.e. / θ / and / d / would be considered the same). </P> <P> In linguistics, phonemes (usually established by the use of minimal pairs, such as kill vs kiss or pat vs bat) are written between slashes, e.g. / p / . To show pronunciation more precisely linguists use square brackets, for example (ph) (indicating an aspirated p). </P>

Basic units of sound in a language are called