What does the term "onset" refer to in linguistics?

In linguistics, the term "onset" refers to the initial part of a word that precedes the vowel. It includes the consonant, consonant blend, or digraph that comes before the vowel in a syllable. Understanding onsets helps in phonics instruction and decoding skills as it is crucial in recognizing and pronouncing words correctly.

Option A is not correct as it describes a morpheme, which is a meaningful linguistic unit that cannot be divided into smaller meaningful elements.

Option B is not correct as it refers to the ability to relate new words to known words, which is more related to vocabulary acquisition and semantic knowledge.

Option C is not correct as it defines the letter pattern in a word that includes the vowel and any consonants that follow, but it does not specifically refer to the onset, which is only the consonant(s) before the vowel in a syllable.