In phonetics, a continuant is a speech sound produced without a complete closure in the oral cavity, namely fricatives, approximants, vowels, and trills.[1][2] While vowels are included in continuants, the term is often reserved for consonant sounds.[3] Approximants were traditionally called "frictionless continuants".[4] Continuants contrast with occlusives, such as plosives, affricates and nasals.
Compare sonorant (resonant), which includes vowels, approximants and nasals but not fricatives, and contrasts with obstruent.