diphthong

[ dif-thawng, -thong, dip- ]
See synonyms for diphthong on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. Phonetics. an unsegmentable, gliding speech sound varying continuously in phonetic quality but held to be a single sound or phoneme and identified by its apparent beginning and ending sound, as the oi-sound of toy or boil.

  2. (not in technical use)

    • a digraph, as the ea of meat.

    • a ligature, as æ.

verb (used with or without object)

Origin of diphthong

1
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English diptonge, from Late Latin diphthongus, from Greek díphthongos literally, “having two sounds,” equivalent to di- di-1 + phthóngos “voice, sound”

Other words from diphthong

  • diph·thon·gal [dif-thawng-guhl, -thong-, dip-], /dɪfˈθɔŋ gəl, -ˈθɒŋ-, dɪp-/, diph·thon·gic, diph·thon·gous, adjective
  • non·diph·thon·gal, adjective

Words Nearby diphthong

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use diphthong in a sentence

  • It is curious that the close o is heard only in the infrequent diphthong óu, or as an obscured, unaccented final.

    Frdric Mistral | Charles Alfred Downer
  • The diphthong is long when a voiced sound follows it, short before a voiceless sound.

  • Listen to a foreigner's pronunciation of English words containing this diphthong; what do you notice?

  • In both cases we have a laxly articulated short sound, and a diphthong in which the tongue rises towards the end.

  • Notice the faulty tendency to raise the tongue too high in uttering the first part of this diphthong; see § 40.

British Dictionary definitions for diphthong

diphthong

/ (ˈdɪfθɒŋ, ˈdɪp-) /


noun
  1. a vowel sound, occupying a single syllable, during the articulation of which the tongue moves from one position to another, causing a continual change in vowel quality, as in the pronunciation of a in English late, during which the tongue moves from the position of (e) towards (ɪ)

  2. a digraph or ligature representing a composite vowel such as this, as ae in Caesar

Origin of diphthong

1
C15: from Late Latin diphthongus, from Greek diphthongos, from di- 1 + phthongos sound

Derived forms of diphthong

  • diphthongal, adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012