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| acronym |
a type of abbreviation used as a word and pronounced as a word. An acronym is formed by combining the initial letters (or initial parts) of a string of words. The pronunciation of an acronym is based on the typical rules of pronouncing words in a language and is not made up of the sounds of the names of individual letters. The abbreviations "AIDS," "FICA," and "PIN" are acronyms, but the abbreviations "FBI," ATM," and "DVD" are not. |
| acute |
of a mark over vowels, indicating a certain stress or pronunciation. (See acute accent.) [1/7 definitions] |
| Anglicize |
(often l.c.) to change or conform to that which is English in style, manner, pronunciation, or the like. |
| bel canto |
a style of singing in which an open, flowing, operatic tone is emphasized over precise pronunciation of the words. |
| brogue1 |
a dialectal pronunciation, esp. an Irish accent. |
| burr2 |
a harsh, trilled pronunciation of the letter "r," like that of the Scots. [1/5 definitions] |
| cedilla |
a diacritical mark (ç), placed under certain letters in French, Portuguese, Turkish, and Russian to indicate a particular pronunciation, as, in French, the sound of "s" for the letter "c". |
| cockneyism |
an idiom, expression, pronunciation, or quality that is characteristic of cockneys. |
| contraction |
a shortened form of a word or words, generally containing an apostrophe in the written form to represent missing letters. Contractions reflect the elimination of certain sounds as well as, in some cases, changes in sound and spelling, as when the vowel pronunciation changes in the case of "will not" being shortened to "won't." [1/3 definitions] |
| dassent |
(dialectal) a regional pronunciation of "darest not," "darest" being an older second person singular, present tense form of the verb "dare." |
| dialect |
a variety of a language that is peculiar to a region, social class, or occupation and that differs from the standard language in pronunciation, usage, and vocabulary. [1/2 definitions] |
| dictionary |
a reference work that contains a list of words of a particular language, usu. in alphabetical order and supplemented with information about the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of each word. [1/3 definitions] |
| elide |
to leave out or slur, as a syllable or letter, in pronunciation. [1/2 definitions] |
| English |
to adapt the pronunciation or spelling of to English; anglicize. [1/7 definitions] |
| git1 |
a spelling of the word "get" that represents a pronunciation primarily associated with the southern and western U.S. [1/2 definitions] |
| grammar |
the formal rules of a language, esp. those pertaining to sentence structure but also those pertaining to the formation and function of words and to those governing pronunciation. [1/4 definitions] |
| heteronym |
a word that is spelled the same as another but has a different pronunciation and meaning, such as "tear," meaning "to rip," and "tear," meaning the liquid discharge from the eye. |
| orthoepy |
the study of pronunciation; phonology. [2 definitions] |
| phonics |
(used with a sing. verb) a method of teaching spelling, pronunciation, and reading that uses a phonetic rendering of the standard spelling system. [1/2 definitions] |
| pronounce |
to show the pronunciation of (words) by transcribing into phonetic symbols. [1/7 definitions] |
| Scotticism |
a characteristically Scottish pronunciation, figure of speech, or the like. |
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