[voh-kuh-leez] 
| 1. | a musical composition consisting of the singing of melody with vowel sounds or nonsense syllables rather than text, as for special effect in classical compositions, in polyphonic jazz singing by special groups, or in virtuoso vocal exercises. |
| 2. | any such singing exercise or vocalized melody. |
[voh-kuh-lahyz] [voh-kuh-lahyz] verb, -ized, -iz⋅ing.| 1. | to make vocal; utter; articulate; sing. |
| 2. | to endow with a voice; cause to utter. |
| 3. | Phonetics.
|
| 4. | (of Hebrew, Arabic, and other writing systems that do not usually indicate vowels) to furnish with vowels or vowel points. |
| 5. | to use the voice, as in speech or song. |
| 6. | to sing without uttering words, esp. to warm up the voice, practice vowel sounds, etc., before a performance. |
| 7. | to sing scales, arpeggios, trills, or the like, usually to a solmization syllable or a vowel sound. |
| 8. | Phonetics. to become changed into a vowel. |
| vo·cal·ise 1 (vō'kə-lēz') n. An exercise, composition, or arrangement in which a performer sings solmization syllables or other meaningless vocal sounds rather than a text. [French, from vocaliser, to vocalize, from vocal, vocal, from Old French; see vocal.] |
| vo·cal·ise 2 (vō'kə-līz') v. Chiefly British Variant of vocalize. |
kəˈliz