Metathesis

//məˈtæ.θə.sɪs// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The transposition of letters, syllables or sounds within a word, such as in ask as /æks/. countable, uncountable
  2. 2
    a chemical reaction between two compounds in which parts of each are interchanged to form two new compounds (AB+CD=AD+CB) wordnet
  3. 3
    The double decomposition of inorganic salts. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a linguistic process of transposition of sounds or syllables within a word or words within a sentence wordnet
  5. 5
    The breaking and reforming of double bonds in olefins in which substituent groups are swapped. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
anabolismavatarcatabolismcatalysiscommunicationconduction

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin metathesis, from Ancient Greek μετάθεσις (metáthesis), from μετά (metá, “among”) + θέσις (thésis, “placement”).

Related phrases

olefin metathesisquantitative metathesisself-metathesisdouble bonddouble decomposition

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