umlaut

American  

[oom-lout] / ˈʊm laʊt /

noun

1. Phonetics, Orthography. a diacritic (¨) used over a vowel, as ä, ö, ü, to indicate a vowel sound different from that of the letter without the diacritic, especially as so used in German.

2. Also called vowel mutation.  Linguistics, Phonetics. (in Germanic languages) assimilation in which a vowel is influenced by a following vowel or semivowel.

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verb (used with object)

1. Linguistics, Phonetics. to modify by umlaut.

2. Phonetics, Orthography. to write an umlaut over.

umlaut British  

/ ˈʊmlaʊt /

noun

1. the mark (¨) placed over a vowel in some languages, such as German, indicating modification in the quality of the vowel Compare diaeresis

2. (esp in Germanic languages) the change of a vowel within a word brought about by the assimilating influence of a vowel or semivowel in a preceding or following syllable

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Etymology

Origin of umlaut

1835–45; < German, equivalent to um- about, around + Laut sound

Explanation

If you've ever studied German, you've seen an umlaut. It's a mark that looks like two dots over a letter, and it signifies a shift in pronunciation. Properly speaking, only German and Hungarian words have these two dots over a vowel to indicate a change in sound (as in doppelgänger and über), but loosely, people sometimes refer to its twin, the dieresis (as in naïve) as an umlaut. The word is German and means "change of sound," from um, "about," and laut, "sound."

Example Sentences

Trying to get my lips and tongue from the ge- to the umlaut, then back around to the -lichkeit was, frankly, too much.

From Slate • Feb. 25, 2025

His English was poor, though he had just sacrificed an umlaut in his surname in deference to American spelling.

From New York Times • Feb. 2, 2023

"Across all categories we see the system becoming more mature and stable", said Hakan Ekman, one of the study's authors. umlaut conducted a similar ranking in 2020 in California.

From Reuters • Jan. 31, 2022

Ambition led Mr. Kruger to Paris and London, where he studied French and English, and dropped the umlaut in his surname, in the hope of landing more-glamorous roles in foreign films.

From Washington Post • Jan. 20, 2022

In other writings of the tenth to the twelfth century the umlaut of ū is seldom found.

From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Wright, Joseph