DIAERESIS

dieresis, diaeresis

(noun) a diacritical mark (two dots) placed over a vowel to indicate that it does not form a diphthong with an adjacent vowel

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

diaeresis (plural diaereses)

(orthography) A diacritic ( ¨ ) placed over a vowel letter (especially the second of two consecutive ones) indicating that it is sounded separately, usually forming a distinct syllable, as in the English words naïve, Noël and Brontë, the French haïr and the Dutch ruïne.

Synonym: trema

Coordinate term: umlaut

(linguistics, prosody) Distraction; the separation of a vowel, often a diphthong, into two distinct syllables.

(prosody) A natural break in rhythm when a word ends at the end of a metrical foot, in a line of verse.

(linguistics, prosody) Hiatus; the occurrence of separate vowel sounds in adjacent syllables without an intervening consonant.

Usage notes

• The umlaut is an often visually identical diacritic which alters the sound of a single vowel (as in German schön). Properly speaking, the terms diaeresis and umlaut are not interchangeable, though speakers frequently use the term umlaut to refer to a diaeresis.

Anagrams

• side raise

Source: Wiktionary

Di*ær"e*sis, Di*er"e*sis, n.; pl. Diæreses or Diereses. Etym: [L. diaeresis, Gr. Heresy.]

1. (Gram.)

Definition: The separation or resolution of one syllable into two; -- the opposite of synæresis.

2. A mark consisting of two dots [..], placed over the second of two adjacent vowels, to denote that they are to be pronounced as distinct letters; as, coöperate, aërial.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition