diaeresis
Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
diaeresis /dʌɪˈɪərɪsɪs, -ˈɛr-/ (US dieresis)
▶noun (pl. diaereses /-siːz/)
- 1 a mark (¨) placed over a vowel to indicate that it is sounded separately, as in naïve, Brontë.
■ the division of a sound into two syllables, especially by sounding a diphthong as two vowels.
- 2 Prosody a natural rhythmic break in a line of verse where the end of a metrical foot coincides with the end of a phrase.
– origin C16: via L. from Gk diairesis ‘separation’, from diairein ‘take apart’.
'diaeresis' also found in these Oxford entries:
