dieresis

Multiple Entries:
  dieresis    diaeresis  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
dieresis

▶noun US spelling of 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’.