Lene

//ˈliːn// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The smooth breathing (spiritus lenis).
  2. 2
    A voiceless, or unaspirated, stopped consonant, such as Greek pi, kappa, or tau.

    "When in a crasis, a lene consonant […] is combined with an aspirated vowel, the lene is always changed (except in the Ionic dialect) into the corresponding aspirate […]"

Example

More examples

"When in a crasis, a lene consonant […] is combined with an aspirated vowel, the lene is always changed (except in the Ionic dialect) into the corresponding aspirate […]"

Etymology

Anglicisation of Latin lēnis. Doublet of lenis.

Related phrases

dagesh lene

More for "lene"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

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