dieresis

Or di·aer·e·sis

[dahy-er-uh-sis]

noun

plural

diereses 

1. Linguistics, Phonetics.,  the separation of two adjacent vowels, dividing one syllable into two.

2. Phonetics, Orthography.,  a diacritic (¨) placed over the second of two adjacent vowels to indicate separate pronunciation, as in one spelling of the older forms naïve and coöperate: no longer widely used in English.

3. Prosody.,  the division made in a line or verse by coincidence of the end of a foot and the end of a word.

dieresis

/ daɪˈɛrɪsɪs, ˌdaɪəˈrɛtɪk /

noun

1. a variant spelling of diaeresis

Other Word Forms

• dieretic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of dieresis¹

1605–15; < Latin diaeresis < Greek diaíresis literally, distinction, division, equivalent to diaire-, stem of diaireîn to divide ( di- di- ³ + haireîn to take) + -sis -sis

Example Sentences

But those at The New Yorker are something else entirely, a species nova that mutated into existence in 1925 and would hurl itself off a cliff rather than forsake the dieresis in “coöperate.”

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Since the ligatures “æ” and “œ” are used consistently, dieresis can be assumed even when not explicitly indicated.

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At "anapest" it was a noticeable frown, at "apothem" it became very pronounced, and at "dieresis" his shaggy red brows nearly covered his eyes, he was frowning so hard.

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