Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Variant of dieresis.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. See dieresis.
Wiktionary
- n. orthography A diacritic placed over a vowel letter indicating that it is sounded separately, usually forming a distinct syllable, as in naïve, Noël, Brontë.
- n. linguistics, prosody The separation of a vowel, often a diphthong, into two distinct syllables.
- n. prosody A natural break in rhythm when a word ends at the end of a metrical foot, in a line of verse.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Gram.) The separation or resolution of one syllable into two; -- the opposite of synæresis.
- n. A mark consisting of two dots [¨], placed over the second of two adjacent vowels, to denote that they are to be pronounced as distinct letters.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a diacritical mark (two dots) placed over a vowel in German to indicate a change in sound
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek διαίρεσις ("division, split"), from διά (dia, "apart") + αἱρέω (aireō, "I take"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The term diaeresis earlier diæresis, US dieresis derives from a Greek word meaning 'divide' or 'separate'.”
“She loved having two dots over the e of her name and told everyone that they were called a diaeresis and meant that both the o and the e were to be sounded.”
“So there is a key called diaeresis (¨), which on the British keyboard is got by using Alt Gr and the left square bracket, so: AltGr+ [”
“To add a diaeresis (¨) above a letter, press Ctrl +: and type the letter that requires the diaeresis.”
“Probably because of that strange little trema (a French kind of umlaut or diaeresis) over the "e".”
“For the accent challenged, like me before looking it up, to put a diaeresis above the 'e' in Zoë: in comments hold down [ALT] and key 137 into the number keypad (the number line above the letter keyboard won't work).”
“Somehow the New Yorker's arcane use of a diaeresis (coöperation) or acute accent (élite) seems quaint - and doesn't interrupt a reader's flow like an additional, superfluous word; even e-mail doesn't itch.”
Bruce Gilardi: The Gray Lady Doesn't Get the 'Message' (and is Promoting Porn?)
“By the way, I don't know who writes EU Law Blog the about link doesn't work for me at least but I love the way he or she uses a diaeresis in words like coöperation and coördinate.”
“Ie the is pronounced only when marked with a diaeresis.”
“Cause if it damaged a kidney, you might need diaeresis…”
C’mon..I swearz… - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘diaeresis’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Rhetorical Devices
trope, wellerism, antimetabole, syncope, open-list, accismus, abating, abbaser, abecedarian, abcisio, ablatio, abominatio and 425 more...
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Words that sound dirty but aren't.
When you want to be pedantic AND childish.
titular, masticate, condiment, titmouse, penal, formication, social intercourse, assassination, cacophony, lucubrate, rectify, banal and 131 more...
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Marks
names of punctuation marks, accent marks, and other graphic signs and graphical characters used in printed, written, or digital text.
comma, period, parenthesis, apostrophe, colon, semicolon, slash, stroke, brackets, dash, em dash, en dash and 72 more...
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The New Yorker's style manual
This list is my attempt to figure out The New Yorker's style and usage guidelines. It is based on reading articles within the pages of that venerable magazine and working backward. Feel free to add...
coöperate, diaeresis, trema, dieresis, t. h. white write..., updike plug, meracious eclecti..., kael without fail, E.B. White, coöperation, zoölogical, reënter and 14 more...
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bintalshamsa's list
My Favorite Words
weltschmerz, perspicacity, idée fixe, invigilator, salubrious, tchotchke, ex nihilo, invidious, malapropism, naïve, sardonic, elide and 1402 more...
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Aequoria's list
affect, deleterious, nuance, pliant, verbatim, pertinent, latter, municipality, provincial, voyeuristic, circumlocution, wane and 798 more...
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the omnibus
preponderance, idioglossia, acumen, heteronym, flux, anacoluthon, metonymy, impetus, constellation, exegesis, revelatory, cloistered and 877 more...
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Words
Just another sorting device.
oneupsmanship, surpassing, oak gall, transformational, carriage return, riddle me this, pilling, logger, steno, horehound drops, reft, gammaglobulin and 109 more...
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Words/Phrases that have crossed my path
palanquin, rhapsodical, cacology, sylvan, veranda, lithe, spittoon, aptronym, retronym, purloin, blithe, diaeresis and 134 more...
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points, accents, and curious characters
terms for punctuation, accents, typography, etc.
guillemet, ellipsis, tilde, diaeresis, dieresis, umlaut, virgule, pilcrow, alinea, etc., hyphen, em dash and 16 more...
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a little carrot over the 'a'
being the names of diacritical marks
cedilla, accent, caron, breve, circumflex, macron, diaeresis, dot, hook, horn, ogonek, ring and 5 more...
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jough's Words
insouciant, ubiquitous, eleven, approximately, gotham, schadenfreude, desultory, batman, abattoir, lugubrious, suave, scintilla and 44 more...
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things grammatical and punctual
apostrophe, umlaut, interrobang, ampersand, pilcrow, tilde, ellipsis, asterisk, diaeresis, circumflex, guillemet, parenthesis and 8 more...
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picklechipsluva5's Words
quagmire, haettenschweiller, splice, saucy, repeticious, audacious, vignette, googleganger, doppelganger, umlaut, diaeresis, symposium and 3 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for diaeresis.
rolig Not surprisingly, perhaps, weirdnet got it wrong again. Diaeresis, or in U.S. spelling, dieresis, indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately and not as a diphthong, and in naïve. It's the umlaut (which looks like diaresis) that changes the quality of the vowel, as in Übermensch. Dec 2, 2007
chained_bear Ha!
Only if you don't spell it logorrhoea. Gosh, that spelling is gross. Oct 28, 2007
skipvia Or even logorrhea, which I think is appropriately descriptive. Oct 28, 2007
chained_bear Or worse (somehow): diarrhoea. Oct 28, 2007
uselessness Aww, I wish this word didn't make me think of diarrhea... :-( Oct 28, 2007