Articulation is the shaping of the lips, teeth, and other structures to make words from the basic buzzing sound produced in the larynx. So-called articulators are both moveable and non-moveable structures that shape sounds into words; six are primary (tongue, teeth, lips, hard palate, soft palate, and alveolar ridge), and two are secondary (jaw and cheeks).

 

Articulation is also how smoothly or abruptly something is to be played. Examples of articulation are:

 

   accents
   legato
   portato
   staccato
   slurs
   tenuto

 

In acoustics, articulationis a quantitative measure of the intelligibility of speech; the percentage of speech items correctly perceived and recorded.