What does "metathesize" mean?

To undergo or to subject to metathesis; of sounds, to switch positions in a word.

What is a synonym for "metathesize"?

Common synonyms include: assign, carry over, communicate, consign, deliver, deport.

verb

verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Verb

1
To undergo or to subject to metathesis; of sounds, to switch positions in a word.
"Cases like mu·yh : mu·hyut may be accounted for under a rule that clusters of h plus sonorant metathesize in word-final position."

"Cases like mu·yh : mu·hyut may be accounted for under a rule that clusters of h plus sonorant metathesize in word-final position."

From metathesis + -ize.

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