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eye dialect
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noun
the literary use of misspellings that are intended to convey a speaker's lack of education or use of humorously dialectal pronunciations but that are actually no more than respellings of standard pronunciations, as wimmin for “women,” wuz for “was,” and peepul for “people.”
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Origin of eye dialect
First recorded in 1920–25
usage note for eye dialect
Eye Dialect is used as a label for such misspellings in this dictionary.
Words nearby eye dialect
eye-catching, eye chart, eye contact, eyecup, eyed, eye dialect, eye doctor, eye dog, eyedropper, eye drops, eye-filling
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023