Apocope

//əˈpɒ.kə.pi// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The loss or omission of the last vowel in a word, together with any consonants that follow it. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    abbreviation of a word by omitting the final sound or sounds wordnet
  3. 3
    The loss or omission of a sound or syllable from the end of a word. broadly, countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
abbreviationabridgmentabstractaphaeresisapocopationapocopic

Example

More examples

"Polysynthesis is a method of word-building, applicable either to nominals or verbals, which not only employs juxtaposition with aphaeresis, syncope, apocope, etc., but also words, forms of words and significant phonetic elements which have no separate existence apart from such compounds."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Late Latin apocopē, derived from Ancient Greek ἀποκοπή (apokopḗ), ἀποκόπτω (apokóptō, “cut off”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.