ADJ.
alveolar, glottal, legendary, palatal
noun
A consonant sound made by slightly narrowing the vocal tract, while still allowing a smooth flow of air. Liquids and glides are approximants.
An approximation to the solution of a function, series, etc.
A linguistics student swallowed her own tongue after attempting the legendary glottal approximant.
The alveolar approximant is a sound that is very rare in languages worldwide, but exists in the English language.
In English, consonantal Y is a palatal approximant.