articulating

Articulating is the act of expressing something clearly and distinctly, or the action of forming or joining parts that allow movement. The word derives from Latin articulus, meaning a small joint or a joining point, and the verb articulate encompasses both communication and mechanical or anatomical joining.

In speech and linguistics, articulating refers to the production of speech sounds through movements of the articulators—lips, tongue, teeth, palate, and glottis. Articulatory phonetics studies how different places and manners of articulation produce consonants and vowels; terms such as voicing, place of articulation, and manner of articulation describe how sounds are formed.

In anatomy and biomechanics, an articulation is a joint between two bones or elements. Articulating actions include bending, rotating, and translating at joints such as the knee or elbow. In this sense, the term contrasts with disarticulation, the separation of a joint. Articulation can also refer to the design of components that connect and allow relative movement, such as articulated limbs or robotic arms.

In music and performance, articulation describes how notes are attacked and released. Common types include legato, staccato, tenuto, and marcato, which affect the musical phrase and expressive character. The concept also appears in fields like computer animation and robotics where articulating a model involves specifying joints and ranges of motion.