cedilla

[si-dil-uh]

noun

1. Phonetics, Orthography.,  a diacritic (¸) placed under a consonant letter, as under c in French, in Portuguese, and formerly in Spanish, to indicate that it is pronounced (s), under c and s in Turkish to indicate that they are pronounced, respectively, (ch) and (sh), or under t and s in Romanian to indicate that they are pronounced, respectively, (ts) and (sh).

2. Orthography.,  this mark used as a diacritic of arbitrary value in transliteration of words from non-Roman into Roman alphabetic characters.

cedilla

/ sɪˈdɪlə /

noun

1. a character ( ¸ ) placed underneath a c before a, o, or u, esp in French, Portuguese, or Catalan, denoting that it is to be pronounced (s), not (k). The same character is used in the scripts of other languages, as in Turkish under s

Word History and Origins

Origin of cedilla¹

1590–1600; < Spanish variant spelling of zedilla little z, equivalent to zed ( a ) zed + -illa diminutive suffix; the mark was so called from its original form

Word History and Origins

Origin of cedilla¹

C16: from Spanish: little z, from ceda zed, from Late Latin zeta; a small z was originally written after c in Spanish, to indicate a sibilant

Example Sentences

To make a C with a cedilla, for example, involved a lot more effort and thought than holding down the Option key on your Mac.

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The mark used to indicate the soft c is called the cedilla.

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The cedilla is an etymological sign added by modern grammarians.

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The thought of them, at any time of the day, can put a cedilla under my heart to soften it....

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It was usual to write instead of the z—c with a cedilla, and this was probably the origin of the mistake.

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