Diacritic
//ˌdaɪəˈkɹɪtɪk// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A special mark added to a letter to indicate a different pronunciation, stress, tone, or meaning.
- 2 a mark added to a letter to indicate a special pronunciation wordnet
- 3 A letter added to another letter serving a similar indicative function.
"A notable feature in N is the frequent oa spellings […] The a is here a diacritic which is meant to distinguish /ɔ̄/ from /ō/ on the model of the distinction ea /ǣ/—e /ē/ in the AB texts."
Adjective
- 1 Distinguishing.
- 2 Denoting a distinguishing mark applied to a letter or character. not-comparable
Adjective
- 1 capable of distinguishing wordnet
Example
More examples"A notable feature in N is the frequent oa spellings […] The a is here a diacritic which is meant to distinguish /ɔ̄/ from /ō/ on the model of the distinction ea /ǣ/—e /ē/ in the AB texts."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek διακριτικός (diakritikós, “distinguishing, separative”), from διακρῑ́νω (diakrī́nō, “to distinguish, separate”), from δια- (dia-, “between”) + κρῑ́νω (krī́nō, “I separate, distinguish”).
More for "diacritic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.