In the broadest sense of the word, a
vocable is any meaningful sound uttered by people, such as a word or term, that is fixed by their language and culture. However, use in the broad sense is archaic. The term is currently used for utterances which are not considered
words, such as the English vocables of assent and denial,
uh-huh and
uh-uh , or the vocable of error,
uh-oh .