noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A pronunciation shift whereby /l/ or other closely related phonemes are substituted for other sounds (typically /r/), as Sally for Sarah or Molly for Mary. countable, uncountable
2. 2
   speech defect involving excessive use or unusual pronunciation of the phoneme /l/ wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

corruptionmispronunciation

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin lambdacismus. By surface analysis lambda + -cism (phenomenon related to a specific phoneme).

Related phrases

instead of

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