"distinctive sound or group of sounds," 1889, from French phonème, from Greek phōnēma "a sound made, voice," from phōnein "to sound or speak," from phōnē "sound, voice" (from PIE root *bha- (2) "to speak, tell, say"). Related: Phonematic.

in linguistics, 1964, with -ic + prosodeme (1940), from Greek proso-, probably meant to be related to pros "toward, to, at, against, near" (see pros-)  + -eme.

in linguistics, "a sing or symbol; the smallest unit of meaning," 1866, from Greek sēma "sign" (see semantic). Compare -eme, pheme.