Schwa

//ʃwɑ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    An indeterminate central vowel sound as the "a" in "about", represented as /ə/ in IPA.

    "The participle has also, owing to the accent, the lightest possible forms; but here there was no reduplication, and so in class I. the "schwa" took the form e before single mutes or fricatives, and elsewhere o."

  2. 2
    Alternative form of shva. alt-of, alternative
  3. 3
    a neutral middle vowel; occurs in unstressed syllables wordnet
  4. 4
    The name of the Latin script letter Ə/ə.
Verb
  1. 1
    To be reduced to schwa. rare

Synonyms

All synonyms
natural vowelnatural vowelneutral vowelshwa

Example

More examples

"A schwa represents a neutral vowel."

Etymology

Borrowed from German Schwa, from Hebrew שווא / שְׁוָא (shva, šəwā, “(mark indicating reduction or absence of a vowel)”), borrowed from Classical Syriac ܫ̈ܘܰܝܳܐ (š'wayyā, literally “even, equal”), in Syriac a term for a sign consisting of two vertical dots used to separate parts of a sentence. Doublet of shva.

Related phrases

a-schwa ⟨ɐ⟩e-schwa ⟨ə⟩schwa deletionschwa indogermanicumschwa primumschwar ⟨ɚ⟩schwi ⟨ᵻ⟩schwu ⟨ᵿ⟩schwa primum

More for "schwa"

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.